Fired nurse convicted of 2nd double murder during Valentine’s Day rampage in upstate NY

NY man guilty in double killing

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A twice-fired nursing supervisor enraged at two co-workers who accused him of sexual harassment was convicted Monday of killing a nurse and a bystander during a Valentine’s Day rampage that left four people dead in upstate New York.

After three hours of deliberations, a jury found Frank Garcia guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the Feb. 14 slayings of nurse Mary Silliman, 23, and Randal Norman, 41, a motorist who intervened when he saw her being roughed up outside a hospital in Brockport, 20 miles west of Rochester.

Garcia displayed no emotion as the verdict was read. Sentencing was set for Dec. 16.

Garcia, 35, is already serving a life sentence for killing another former co-worker, Kimberly Glatz, 38, and her husband, Christopher Glatz, 45, at their home 50 miles away, in Canandaigua, on the same day.

Investigators say Garcia targeted the women after their harassment complaints led to his dismissal from successive jobs — a nursing home in Rochester in October and Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport on Feb. 13.

“I can’t take it anymore,” Garcia said in reference to the firings in a letter police found in his car.

At the start of his three-week trial, hairstylist Audra Dillon identified him as the gunman with “very piercing eyes” who killed Norman, her boyfriend, and wounded her as she sped away in a car. The couple was driving by the hospital around 5 a.m. when they saw a man drag a woman by the hair across the parking lot and then begin punching and kicking her.

When they approached, her boyfriend shouting “Dude, let her go,” Dillon said the man dropped down into a shooter’s stance and killed Norman, then turned and shot Silliman as she tried to run away. When Dillon retreated to her car, she said he fired through the windows, hitting her in the arm and side.

Garcia was also convicted of attempted murder for Dillon’s shooting.

Prosecutor Doug Randall described the slayings as “simply revenge, simply to get even. … He lost his job, his reputation in the nursing community was sullied again, that’s the motive.” All 11 bullet casings matched Garcia’s gun, and calls from his cell phone placed him in Brockport, he said in closing arguments.

Garcia was arrested at a restaurant in Rochester that afternoon after negotiating a surrender by cell phone. He was carrying a loaded .40-caliber Glock pistol that police determined was the murder weapon.

Defense attorney Joseph Damelio maintained Dillon’s description of Garcia was influenced by police and media reports, noting she initially gave police sketchy details. “No matter how many times someone used the words ‘kill,’ ‘Valentine’s Day,’ the evidence didn’t show that that man did that,” Damelio told jurors.

“Dillon says she recognizes the shooter,” the prosecutor countered. “Take that for what it’s worth. It’s not the strongest evidence we have, but it all ties together.”