A Grand Court jury in the Cayman Islands has found Dr. Paul Anthony Taiganides not guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of 29-year-old shooting victim Travis Alexander Derron Ebanks.
After deliberating for more than two days, the jury of three women and four men returned the unanimous verdict on Friday afternoon, bringing an end to a trial that lasted more than three weeks. Taiganides, 63, had been charged with manslaughter through unlawful omission or culpable negligence over the treatment provided to Ebanks after he was brought to the Health Services Authority hospital in the early hours of January 21st, 2024.
Ebanks had suffered catastrophic injuries after being shot in the chest and neck, including a severed spinal cord and significant blood loss. Taiganides was the lead physician in the emergency room as doctors and nurses worked to save his life. A central issue in the trial was the placement of an endotracheal tube used to help Ebanks breathe. Prosecutors argued that the tube had been mistakenly placed in Ebanks’ oesophagus instead of his airway, depriving him of oxygen, and that Taiganides had failed to recognise and correct the error. The Crown argued that the alleged failure fell grossly below the standard expected of a senior physician and contributed to Ebanks’ death. But the defence maintained that Taiganides had correctly intubated Ebanks and that the tube may have become displaced while the critically injured patient was being moved. Taiganides took the witness stand in his own defence and remained adamant that he had correctly placed the tube.
He told the court that capnography had been used to confirm its placement and that a respiratory waveform was observed. Evidence also showed that Ebanks’ oxygen saturation improved following the intubation, supporting the defence’s position that the tube had been correctly placed, at least for a period of time. Prosecution experts, however, maintained that the tube was in the oesophagus by the time of a portable chest X-ray and later the autopsy.
The court also heard evidence about Ebanks’ critical condition when he arrived at hospital. All witnesses agreed that he urgently needed a blood transfusion, but despite the hospital being notified that he was on his way and had suffered significant blood loss, no blood was waiting for him when he arrived. By then, the court heard, Ebanks had lost approximately half of his blood volume and was also suffering from brain herniation. The defence argued that the extent of his injuries and blood loss made his death inevitable, and that the alleged intubation error could not be established as the cause of his death.
The prosecution’s own witnesses also gave evidence that Taiganides had followed a number of the appropriate procedures during the emergency treatment. During the trial, Taiganides’ legal team twice asked the court to dismiss the case, but Justice Cheryll Richards declined, ruling that the matter should ultimately be decided by a jury. Following weeks of testimony from doctors, nurses and medical experts, Justice Richards delivered a lengthy summation outlining the issues the jury needed to consider before reaching a verdict.
After more than two days of deliberations, the jury cleared Dr. Taiganides of the manslaughter charge. The verdict brings to a close the weeks-long Grand Court proceedings surrounding the medical treatment of Travis Ebanks following the January 2024 shooting.
