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Doctor Testifies Against Mistress in Assault Case

HOUSTON (CN) - A Houston doctor, testifying during the trial of the former mistress accused of trying to poison him, said the caustic chemicals used to carry out the plan damaged his kidneys and forced him to become a vegetarian.

Former MD Anderson oncologist Ana Gonzalez-Angulo was charged with felony aggravated assault in May 2013 after her ex-lover George Blumenschein told police she had poisoned him in January of that year. If convicted, she faces life in prison.

Blumenschein became close with Gonzalez-Angulo when they teamed up to a write a grant proposal for the world-renowned institution, he said Monday from the witness stand.

Early on, he said Gonzalez-Angulo started sitting on his lap in the office, then kissed his neck a few weeks later. Their relationship became intimate in late 2011 when they had oral sex during a business trip to Sweden, Blumenschein testified before a standing-room only courtroom in downtown Houston.

He told police that on the morning of Jan. 27, 2013, Gonzalez-Angulo prepared and gave him some coffee that tasted sweet, and he asked her about it because he takes his coffee black.

Gonzalez-Angulo told him she had put Splenda in the coffee and made him another cup that also tasted sweet, court records show.

Within hours, Blumenschein said, he began slurring his speech and losing his balance.

"Sixteen hours after drinking this coffee, he was admitted to a hospital emergency center where he was found to have central nervous system depression, cardiovascular complications and renal failure," according to charging documents filed by University of Texas at Houston policeman Macario Sosa.

Sosa followed up with a doctor who tested Blumenschein's urine and found evidence of ethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting liquid that is used to make antifreeze, and can be found in all the labs at MD Anderson, according to the charging documents.

The trial started last week and resumed Monday with prosecutors playing a phone conversation that Blumenschein had with Gonzalez-Argulo after he got out of the hospital, and that he secretly recorded, suspecting her of poisoning him.

The heavily accented Gonzalez-Argulo, a native of Colombia, hints on the recording that she thinks Blumenschein's common law wife Evette Toney poisoned him.

"You're telling me that she masterminded all this stuff?" Blumenschein asks on the tape.

"Well she got what she needed. You. So it's all good," Gonzalez-Argulo replies.

"You know what? She had me. Our relationship had its bumps but she had me so she didn't get anything from this ... That logic doesn't work. I don't know, I don't know," Blumenschein says, his voice trailing off.

"... I mean do you think I should leave Evette is that what you're thinking?"

"George you can do whatever you want. It's your life not mine."

"I mean, do you think I'm at risk or no?"

"For God's sake someone assaulted you."

"I know. I'm asking you since you seem to know more about all this junk than I do, I just don't know."

"I would have run away a long time ago."

Blumenschein recorded six hours of phone conversations with Gonzalez-Argulo and turned them over to police shortly before prosecutors charged her in May 2013.

Wearing a gray suit with a purple tie and thick framed glasses, the balding 6-foot-5-inch Blumenschein, closed his eyes and rubbed his chin with a forefinger and thumb as the recording played.

During cross examination by defense attorney Andy Drumheller the doctor revealed he was not the only one listening in on those phone calls.

"Was Ms. Toney listening in on the telephone conversations that occurred with you and Dr. Gonzalez that were recorded," Drumheller asked.

"For some of them yes she was," Blumenschein acknowledged.

"Was she listening in on that last one we all had the pleasure of hearing?

"Yes."

"So when you tell Dr. Gonzalez that Evette wasn't there that was a lie at that time?"

"Yes."

Gonzalez-Argulo, who bears a strong resemblance to the actress Tina Fey, struck a pensive pose during the trial, hand covering her mouth, as she listened to Blumenschein explain to Harris County prosecutor Justin Keiter what the ethylene glycol did to him.

"I had damage to my kidneys. It's limited what I can eat and drink and it causes a lot of fatigue. I'm not allowed to exercise for the risk of being dehydrated and it's best that I don't eat certain things such as meat, salt, things like that," the doctor said.

"Against my will I'm a vegetarian since about April of last year. So it's pasta, rice, beans, I have eggs, a lot of fruit ... It's something I'm reminded of not monthly or weekly but every day breakfast, lunch and dinner. If I want to get something to eat I have to view it, read it, make sure it's safe to eat and drink. I can't go out to dinner because I don't know what's in it."

Blumenschein's common-law wife Evette Toney was the last witness to take the stand.

She wiped away tears as she told the jury about her struggles to have children with Blumenschein.

She became pregnant with twins through in vitro fertilization in May 2012, but had a miscarriage that September, she said.

She testified that although Blumenschein emphatically told her of Gonzalez-Argulo "I'm not attracted to her whatsoever," she began to wonder when Gonzalez-Argulo bought him a necklace and insisted that he wear it.

Toney's testimony will resume Tuesday afternoon before Harris County judge Katherine Cabaniss.

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