Jury selection has begun in the high-profile murder trial of Sarah Hartsfield, the Texas woman accused of killing her fifth husband with insulin.
The proceedings mark the latest chapter in a case that has gripped Texas as the 50-year-old faces accusations that she murdered her husband, Joseph Hartsfield, in January 2023.
Hartsfield pleaded not guilty.
According to a grand jury indictment, filed in February 2023, prosecutors allege she “intentionally and knowingly cause[d] the death of an individual, namely Joseph Hartsfield, by a manner and means unknown to the grand jury.”
Joseph’s obituary says he died in a hospital “due to complications of an ischemic stroke, with his loving wife at his side.”
Hartsfield is currently in custody at the Chambers County Jail in Texas and is held on a reduced bond of $2 million.
Prosecutors allege that Hartsfield, an Army veteran, used her husband’s diabetes to cover up a homicide, allegedly injecting him with dangerous amounts of insulin and delaying calling 911 for several hours.
Joseph was taken to a hospital and died days later. Investigators later uncovered multiple insulin pens near his bedside and questioned inconsistencies in Hartsfield’s statements.
“I appreciate the hard work of the deputies and detectives who followed their instincts and identified the suspicious circumstances surrounding Mr. Hartsfield’s death that could have been labeled as ‘death due to illness’ instead of murder,” Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said at the time of her arrest.
The defense has argued that Joseph’s death may have been a tragic complication of his own medical condition rather than a deliberate act by his wife.
Part of what makes the case complex is Hartsfield’s marital history. The now 48-year-old has been married five times.
Hartsfield’s first marriage was to her high school sweetheart, Titus Knoernschild. The couple married young, but the relationship soon soured.
Knoernschild told ABC13 Houston that Sarah threatened him during their separation, warning him not to be surprised if he didn’t survive their divorce.
According to the local outlet, they divorced by 1995, but he said she continued to harass him for years afterward, including showing up at his Fort Hood office in 2008 until he obtained a no-contact order.
She went on to marry her second husband in the mid-1990s.
According to ABC13, Sarah was arrested in March 1996 for allegedly assaulting him during a dispute at their Rio Bonito home.
The charge was dropped after about a week, ABC13 reported.
By the late 1990s, Sarah had remarried, and her third marriage eventually ended in divorce in 2018. Around that time, she became engaged to David Bragg in Minnesota.
On May 9, 2018, Sarah shot and killed Bragg in his home.
She told investigators that he fired at her first and that she returned fire. Douglas County prosecutors ruled the killing a justifiable act of self-defense at the time, according to FOX9 Minneapolis.
Not long after Bragg’s death, Sarah married her fourth husband around 2019. That marriage also ended in divorce by 2021.
Sarah’s fifth marriage was to Joseph Hartsfield, whom she wed in 2022. Friends and neighbors told Click2Houston that Joseph was unhappy in the marriage and had been planning to leave.
On Jan. 7, 2023, Joseph was found unresponsive after a diabetic emergency.
Prosecutors allege Sarah injected him with excessive insulin and delayed calling 911. He died days later.
The Harris County Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death as complications from toxic insulin exposure.
In February 2023, Sarah was arrested and indicted for Joseph’s murder.
Her trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday with opening statements after jury selection.
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