Jury asks to hear audio recordings of her boasts

SAN JOSE — Jurors in the fraud trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes returned to the courtroom Thursday to listen again to audio recordings that captured Holmes’ brash promises about vaunted blood-testing technology that propelled her meteoric rise and scandalous downfall.

In those recordings from a December 2013 presentation to prospective investors, Holmes bragged about partnerships with established drug companies that hadn’t panned out and potential U.S. military contracts that never materialized because of problems with Theranos’ technology. She was unaware she was being recorded at the time.

The jurors previously heard the recordings in late October and a few excerpts in closing arguments last week. They sent a note before noon asking to review them, prompting U.S. District Judge Edward Davila to bring the eight men and four women of the jury back to the courtroom for the first time since they were ushered out at the end of last week to begin deliberations.

Holmes, 37, returned to the courtroom, too, and intently watched the jurors and their reactions to the recordings from her usual seat in the courtroom. She seemed to try to make eye contacts with the jurors when as they walked out of the courtroom following the audio replay, but none appeared to return her gaze.

In the recordings, Holmes boasts about how Theranos would “change the reality of lab testing” and bring down health costs so dramatically that it would save Medicaid and Medicare about $150 billion over a decade. But she didn’t say how long that would take to happen.

Holmes also promised that a deal that Theranos had to deploy its blood-testing technology in Walgreens pharmacies was poised to quickly ramp up.

Walgreens ended up using Theranos technology in only about 40 of its stores, mostly in Arizona, before bailing out of the deal because of concerns that the blood tests were wildly unreliable.

The recordings could prove pivotal to the jurors’ decision because many of the accusations against her revolve around alleged lies she told to raise more money for Theranos.

Holmes will face up to 20 years in prison if the jury finds her guilty. The jury left Thursday without reaching a verdict and are scheduled to resume deliberations Monday.