Eight women sat on the front bench of a courtroom Monday afternoon, watching as a sheriff’s deputy led murder suspect Sally Hill, 50, to her seat.

Hill wore handcuffs and a jail-issued jumpsuit. She briefly glanced at the women in the front row and smiled.

The women on the front row, who later told reporters they are members of Hill’s church, said they believe the murder charge is a mistake and declined further comment.

Hill is accused of intentionally poisoning a patient while working as a nurse anesthetist at the Center for Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery on Billingsley Road in Charlotte.

The patient, Sandra Joyner, had undergone outpatient plastic surgery in April 2001.

Dr. Peter Tucker, who performed the procedure, said the operation was successful. But minutes after the operation, Joyner went into respiratory arrest. The 45-year-old mother of two was rushed to the hospital where she died five days later. 

Autopsy results showed Joyner’s death resulted from a fatal overdose of Fentynal, a powerful painkiller.

The North Carolina Medical Board investigated Joyner’s death and ruled Tucker did not properly supervise Hill, who administered the Fentynal.

Police arrested Hill on Friday, more than five years after Joyner’s death. John Golding, an attorney who represented Hill in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Joyner’s family, said he was stunned by the arrest. Golding said he had “gone through all of the known facts of the case and from what I saw in previous research I saw no basis to arrest her.”

Records show Hill had separated from her husband in November of 2005, and the couple was in the process of getting a divorce.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Detective Chuck Henson said someone approached the Mecklenburg County district attorney with new information in January. The tip led police to conduct a death investigation.

Hill and Joyner had known each other “since they were young girls”, according to police. The two women were cheerleaders at Olympic High School before they graduated in the early 1970’s.

It appears their only other contact came when they were reunited at Tucker’s office on Billingsley Road in the spring of 2001.

Henson said Joyner’s husband and teenage children did not know Hill and were only recently told her death was being investigated as a possible homicide.

“They were shocked when I knocked on the door and told them,” Henson said.

Police have declined to release a motive for the alleged murder. In its 2003 findings, the Medical Board said Hill acted largely on her own, and when Joyner went into respiratory distress, Hill “repeatedly declined offers of assistance from other staff members and directed them not to summon Dr. Tucker.”

Hill’s nursing license was suspended for one year, and records show she never reapplied for a new license.

Police said she was unemployed at the time of her arrest. Court records indicate the Joyner’s lawsuit against Tucker was settled out of court in 2003. Terms were not disclosed.

In Monday’s brief court appearance, Hill was appointed a public defender. The former nurse is in the Mecklenburg County Jail awaiting a bond hearing on September 25.