jeff.waters@gaflnews.com



The trial of a former nurse accused of murdering Suwannee High grad Michelle Herndon began Monday in Gainesville with jury selection and will likely last late into the week.

Herndon, 24, was killed by a lethal dose of an anesthetic in 2005. Oliver Travis O’Quinn, 29, a registered nurse at Shands UF at the time, was later arrested in Africa for the murder.

Herndon’s body was found in an apartment in Gainesville on Nov. 10, 2005. Authorities first thought Herndon died of natural causes but later found a puncture wound in her arm. An autopsy determined she died from a lethal dose of a powerful anesthetic. Gainesville police said O’Quinn injected Herndon with the drug.

Authorities say O’Quinn was infatuated with Herndon, who already had a boyfriend.

O’Quinn resigned from Shands UF shortly after Herndon’s death and fled to Ireland. On June 21, 2006, U.S. Embassy officials caught him trying to wire money from Mauritania, in western Africa.

O’Quinn was able to elude authorities but was later caught in Senegal, south of Mauritania. He was extradited to New York in July 2006 and was eventually returned to Gainesville in October 2006.