Sarah Hartsfield’s insulin murder trial continues into week two
The second week of testimony in Sarah Hartsfield’s insulin murder trial begans today.
The second week of testimony in Sarah Hartsfield’s insulin murder trial began Monday with a rare look inside her Beach City home, captured on body camera footage taken the night investigators say her husband, Joseph Hartsfield, was dying from a fatal insulin overdose.
Nearly two dozen witnesses have taken the stand so far, but prosecutors say they’re not done yet. The state may not rest until mid-week, as jurors continue hearing new evidence and emotional testimony about what investigators call a “pattern” of suspicious behavior dating back decades.
For the first time, jurors watched body camera video from inside the couple’s home, showing Sarah Hartsfield calmly speaking with deputies as they began investigating her husband’s medical emergency in January 2023.
A sergeant testified that her demeanor “seemed odd,” describing her as quiet and calm, even laughing at one point. Hartsfield told investigators she had recently taken down her interior cameras to install a new one.
Inside the bedroom, investigators found prescription pill bottles and insulin pens scattered around, but the sergeant admitted to jurors that they made a critical mistake: those insulin pens and a glass of juice Hartsfield claimed she kept filling for her husband were never collected as evidence.
Prosecutors say Joseph Hartsfield’s blood sugar was dangerously low for hours before Sarah finally called 911.
Jurors also heard from a realtor who shared text messages from Sarah Hartsfield sent just days before her husband’s death. In those messages, she allegedly discussed selling their home and planning her “exit strategy,” complaining that her husband had “buried her in debt.”
Hartsfield’s defense team has repeatedly fought to keep her past out of this trial, but last week, the judge began allowing the jury to hear about some of her so-called “extraneous offenses.”
Those allegations included testimony from an FBI agent who said Hartsfield once tried to orchestrate a murder-for-hire plot against an ex’s new wife, as well as accounts of three separate house fires connected to former partners and even her brother.
One of the most emotional moments came when Doris Swart, the mother of Hartsfield’s ex-boyfriend, David Bragg, took the stand. Swart’s son was shot and killed by Hartsfield in Minnesota in 2018, a case initially ruled self-defense. Swart told jurors that at the funeral home, Sarah put her hand on Bragg’s body and asked, “Why did you make me do that?” before quickly moving on with a new man.
That Minnesota shooting case has now been reopened, according to testimony from the lead investigator. A charging decision is pending the outcome of this Texas murder trial.
Sarah Hartsfield’s defense reminded jurors that she has never been arrested or charged in connection with any of those past allegations.
Still expected to testify this week are Hartsfield’s children and the lead detective on the Chambers County insulin case that led to her arrest.
