In prison, a quadriplegic man who killed his lover before cutting his spinal cord dies.
WOLLONGONG, SYDNEY: A guy who cut his lover’s neck and slit his spinal cord to become a quadriplegic has died while serving a 20-year prison sentence, a coroner has heard.
When he died on April 1, 2020 at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney’s east, Michael James Quinn, 31, was serving a 20-year sentence for savagely stabbing his partner Cherie Vize to death on the lawn of his parents in Wollongong. Before Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes informed the coroner’s court that he died of sepsis, his death went undetected.
According to Forbes, Quinn, whose sentence was due to end in 2035, died of sepsis with the underlying disorders of urosepsis and pneumonia as a result of C3 partial tetraplegia, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.
Following Quinn’s decline on the afternoon of April 1, 2020, a nurse allegedly grabbed his hand and “told him she was here with him,” according to police. He took two or three “short gasping breaths”, according to her. Quinn’s life was then deemed “extinguished” by a doctor.
Michael James Quinn
The coroner said there was ‘no evidence to suggest that any part of his medical care … led to his death in any way’. There will be a proper and impartial investigation into Quinn’s death while in custody. The episode that culminated in Quinn’s detention was described as “both terrible and painful” in the coroner’s findings, which were released on Wednesday.
“Quinn suffered a catastrophic injury when he attempted to end his life almost immediately after stabbing Vize in the neck outside his family home in July 2013,” according to Howard Mullen, the attorney assisting the coroner.
In 2016, Quinn was found guilty of murdering her 25-year-old lover. Quinn allegedly attacked Vize, an aspiring artist, on the lawn of his parents’ home in Wollongong before cutting his spinal cord, according to the trial reserved for judges. In 2013, his self-inflicted injury left him quadriplegic. “Ms. Vize was a calm person. Her disappearance has left her family and friends in great sadness” After a month-long trial, NSW Supreme Court Justice Robert Beech-Jones said.
Authorities discovered Quinn’s incomplete quadriplegia, obesity, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder during his trial in 2016. He also suffered from obstructive sleep apnea, osteoporosis, severe spasticity and recurrent urinary tract infections.
Quinn has a significant criminal past, the court heard. He had received tips in the past for assaulting and intimidating a female student at the University of Wollongong. He had also been charged with 17 “incidents”, including intimidation, indecency, property damage, defying orders and assault.
