'ANGEL' MAY BECOME DEATH PENALTY CASE.

Byline: Donna Huffaker and Dana Bartholomew Staff Writers

Prosecutors charged former hospital therapist Efren Saldivar with murder Wednesday in the ``Angel of Death'' case, accusing him of killing six elderly patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

District Attorney Steve Cooley said the muscle-paralyzing drug Pavulon, which is used to stop people from breathing normally when they are put on respirators, was found in the bodies of all six of the victims.

After Saldivar, 31, of Tujunga confessed three years ago to killing dozens of patients and then recanted, the bodies of 20 patients were exhumed. Pavulon was found in the six but not prescribed in five of the cases by doctors.

``After years of hard work, the combined efforts of both the Glendale Police Department and the District Attorney's Office have paid off in the filing of charges against Efren Saldivar,'' Cooley said.

Saldivar was charged with two special circumstances - poisoning and multiple murder - which could lead to the death penalty or life in prison without parole if he is convicted. He remains jailed without bail, with his arraignment scheduled for today.

The charges result from an investigation that was launched in early 1998, when Saldivar told police he had committed as many as 50 mercy killings of elderly, seriously ill patients. He recanted his confession two days later.

Relatives of the patients Saldivar is accused of killing in 1996 and '97 were notified Tuesday of the suspect's arrest.

For Cecilia Alfaro, 85, it brought back the grief over the death of her husband, Jose, a retired bus driver who died Jan. 2, 1997, two days after he was admitted to Glendale Adventist with emphysema, severe pulmonary and arterial disease and pneumonia.

``I was crying and crying,'' said Cecilia Alfaro, whose husband survived the Bataan Death March in World War II. ``I'm always thinking of him.''

Alfaro's family has filed a wrongful-death suit against Saldivar and Glendale Adventist.

``For this family, it's been a very difficult course,'' said the family's attorney, Matthew B.F. Biren. ``He was sick, but they didn't expect him to die.''

And, he added, they had no reason to suspect he could die at the hands of a respiratory therapist.

``It's extraordinarily troubling to them. This fellow was a war hero,'' he said. ``To be murdered in a hospital he went to for medical care is outrageous.''

Attorney Terry M. Goldberg, who is representing Saldivar without charge in a half-dozen wrongful-death lawsuits, also held a news conference Wednesday, at which he said his client is indigent and will request a public defender in his criminal case.

Goldberg also said he has asked a judge to dismiss the civil suits against Saldivar because of a lack of evidence. A ruling on that motion is expected Friday.

Asked to comment on his client's criminal case, Goldberg said, ``I'm not the judge, and I'm not the jury. But I have not seen any evidence - whatsoever - of any wrongdoing.

``Unfortunately, in this society, we tend to judge people without listening to all the evidence. We know many times there are false confessions, that confessions are obtained illegally.''

Although police did not question Saldivar until spring 1998, hospital officials said Wednesday that they had launched an internal investigation in April 1997 after an employee reported that Saldivar might be hastening patients' deaths.

Officials initially found no evidence to support the accusation, but notified Glendale police after receiving a second tip in February 1998.

Police subsequently interviewed Saldivar for two days. During that time, officials said, he waived his rights to self-incrimination and confessed to killing dozens of patients, either by suffocation or poison.

Later, during interviews with television news magazines, Saldivar recanted his confession. He said he'd made up the extraordinary story in a confused attempt to commit suicide by getting himself sentenced to the gas chamber.

The hospital subsequently fired Saldivar and four other respiratory therapists. The state also removed Saldivar's respiratory therapist license.

Since March 1998, Glendale police investigators have scoured hospital and patient documents and concluded that 171 cases needed to be investigated. Police excluded 54 of those, mainly due to cremation. Of the 117 remaining cases, investigators identified 20 who died suspiciously and exhumed those bodies.

The six victims were identified from the 20 exhumed bodies. Pavulon was not found in the other 14 bodies that were exhumed, officials said.

Saldivar was arrested about 6 a.m. Tuesday as he drove to work as an electrician's apprentice. Goldberg said his client was depressed and in considerable anguish after being arrested.

VICTIMS IDENTIFIED

Here are the six victims named in the case against former respiratory therapist Efren Saldivar, who is accused of murdering elderly patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center:

--Salbi Asatryan, 75, admitted Dec. 27, 1996; died three days later.

--Eleanora Schlegel, 77, admitted Dec. 30, 1996; died three days later.

--Jose Alfaro, 82, admitted Jan. 2, 1997; died two days later.

--Luina Schidlowski, 87, admitted Jan. 20, 1997; died two days later.

--Balbino Castro, 87, admitted Aug. 6, 1997; died nine days later.

--Myrtle Brower, 84, admitted Aug. 18, 1997; died 10 days later.

- Associated Press

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Glendale Police Chief Russell Siverling announces charges filed against Efren Saldivar.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(2) Attorney Terry Goldberg talks with reporters Wednesday.Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Box: VICTIMS IDENTIFIED (See text)