Sarah Hartsfield murder trial updates: Day 4

ANAHUAC, Texas - The trial continues Thursday for Sarah Jean Hartsfield, who is charged with the murder of her husband in Chambers County.

On Wednesday, the jury heard testimony from Joseph Hartsfield's sister, the Chambers County Sheriff's Office dispatch supervisor and two of Joseph's doctors.

Click here for a recap of Day 1.

Click here for a recap of Day 2.

Click here for a recap of Day 3.

How to get updates:

The court is not allowing the trial to be livestreamed. However, FOX 26 is at the trial and will bring you updates throughout the day in this story and on the free FOX LOCAL app.

Bryan Yeatman, Chambers County Sheriff’s Office responding deputy

On Thursday, Chambers County Deputy Bryan Yeatman went over the timeline before Joseph’s death.

According to the testimony:

• Sarah was resting from her surgery but checked on Joseph 3–4 times throughout the day.
• Around 1 p.m., Joseph was sweating uncontrollably and vomiting.
• Two insulin pens were next to the bed.
• Sarah didn't seem too worried about the situation and joked about how Joseph's family felt about her during the statements she gave the deputy.

Body camera footage

The defense played the body camera video of Sarah giving her preliminary statements. Sarah seemed concerned about the purpose of giving her statements. The deputy expressed that it was important to get her preliminary statements because Joseph was nonresponsive in the hospital and that things did not look too good for him.

Dr. Eyitemi Oghogho, Houston Methodist emergency medical physician

• Dr. Oghogho testified that Joseph was nonresponsive to medicine created to raise blood sugar. She believed Joseph had an excessive amount of insulin in him.
• Dr. Oghoho was confirmed about the timeframe in which Joseph had low blood sugar and the time that he arrived at the ER.
• The doctor says Sarah tried to get her to withhold information from Joseph's family members, which made her uncomfortable.

Dr. Saeed Kahkeshani, neurologist

• Testified that Joseph died from lack of blood flow to the brain.
• Both sides argued about whether Joseph had a stroke, but Dr. Kahkeshani said he did not.

Dr. Marianne Beynon, Harris County Medical Examiner's Office

• Dr. Beynon performed Joseph's autopsy. She said his cause of death was of a toxic amount of insulin.
• The doctor said Joseph's brain had gone without oxygen for a number of days while he was in the hospital.
• She also stated that Joseph did not have a stroke.
• According to Dr. Beyon, the level of insulin that sent Joseph to the hospital was an acute event. She said this was the only toxic insulin level autopsy that she's ever done out of about 2,000 autopsies.
• Joseph's manner of death hasn't been determined.

Sarah Hartsfield charged with murder

The backstory:

Joseph Hartsfield died in January 2023. He was Sarah Jean Hartsfield’s fifth husband.

The Chambers County Sheriff’s Office says they were called to a Baytown hospital on the evening of Jan. 7, 2023, about the suspicious illness of an emergency room patient – Joseph. He had been brought in by ambulance from Beach City, where he lived.

According to the sheriff’s office, inconsistencies and other factors discovered during the investigation "made the illness appear more suspicious in nature."

Joseph later died. The sheriff’s office said they believed his death was the result of "foul play."

The district attorney was contacted, and the case was later presented to a grand jury. On Feb. 3, 2023, the grand jury indicted Sarah on a felony murder charge.

According to the sheriff’s office, Joseph was diabetic, and they believe his insulin level was suspiciously high hours before his death and before Sarah called 911.

Sarah pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. She has remained in jail for the two-and-a-half years since she was charged.

What they're saying:

"This is one of the more interesting cases in particular because it has a lot of medical aspects to it. It’s a very technical case, has taken creativity and ingenuity on the detectives and deputies to put this murder together," Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said.

Local perspective:

Beach City, Texas, is located to the east of Houston, near the Trinity Bay.

Sarah Hartsfield's former partner's death

Dig deeper:

Following Sarah’s indictment in 2023, the Douglas County Attorney in Minnesota confirmed that the investigation into a previous death involving Sarah was active again as they followed up on new information the sheriff’s office had received. However, no charges have come from that investigation.

FOX 9 reported that in 2019 the Douglas County Attorney's Office decided not to move forward with charges against Sarah Donohue – now Sarah Hartsfield – after she shot and killed her then-fiancé David Bragg inside a home in Garfield, Minn., in 2018.

According to FOX 9, deputies responded to a home in Garfield on May 9, 2018, for a report of a domestic disturbance during which shots were fired.

At the scene, they found Bragg dead inside the home. According to a letter from the Douglas County Attorney in 2019, Sarah had claimed that Bragg had assaulted her and fired shots at her on a staircase, and she responded by shooting at him, killing him.

At the time, prosecutors said that evidence at the home seemed to support Sarah's version of events.

"The facts reveal that Mr. Bragg discharged his firearm at Ms. Donohue from a close proximity while the two were engaged in an altercation that had become physical," wrote Douglas County Attorney Chad Larson in 2019. "Under the circumstances, Ms. Donohue was justified in shooting Mr. Bragg as a matter of self-defense as she was facing lethal force and had no reasonable possibility of retreating from the threat. Therefore, I am declining to file criminal charges against Ms. Donohue in relation to Mr. Bragg's death."

Sarah Hartsfield trialCrime and Public SafetyChambers County