TYLER, Texas — Editor's Note: The above video is from May 18.
A lawyer who defended an ex-East Texas nurse sentenced to death for killing four patients received one-year probation Thursday morning for seeking out a prostitute during the trial last October.
Phillip Wayne Hayes, 48, of Dallas, entered his guilty plea in late May to solicitation of prostitution. On Thursday, 7th District Court Judge Kerry Russell issued the official sentence during a hearing.
As a part of the plea deal, Hayes will also have to serve 80 community service hours and pay a $1,000 fine. Russell ordered that Hayes take a life skills course.
While prostitution is considered a state jail felony, an agreement was reached to make the punishment range equal to a Class A misdemeanor, Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd said in May.
Byrd served as prosecutor to protect the William George Davis trial records, Smith County District Attorney Jacob Putman said earlier this year.
The Davis trial began Sept. 28 and ended Oct. 27. Davis was ultimately sentenced to death for injecting air into patients’ arterial systems while he was a nurse at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital in Tyler, causing them to have brain damage and later die.
Hayes was arrested Nov. 5 last year and released the same day on a $2,000 bond, according to Smith County Jail records.
According to an arrest affidavit, Smith County undercover officers posted ads on a website commonly used for human trafficking and prostitution.
The document states Hayes began exchanging texts with the undercover officer on Oct. 5 for roughly two hours that afternoon. Investigators identified Hayes using his phone number and law enforcement database searches.
Oct. 5 was the sixth day of the Davis trial, in which Hayes and fellow attorney Douglas Parks worked on the defense team.
Another search determined Hayes' vehicle. The affidavit reads Hayes asked for an hour of time for him to pay $110 for sex. After Hayes requested, the undercover officer gave him a location to meet around 6 p.m.
An arrest team saw Hayes’ vehicle come to the location, and he was arrested and transported for an interview, the affidavit stated.
Because of Hayes’ involvement as counsel in the Davis trial, officers made the decision to get a warrant at another time.