Pennsylvania nurse Heather Pressdee, 41, received three consecutive life sentences and another consecutive term of 380-760 years behind bars for administering lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients.
Pressdee pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and other charges this past week and was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday (local time).
Her hearing was held in a court in the county of Butler, about 30 miles (48 kilometres) north of Pittsburgh. She played a role in the deaths of at least 17 patients who lived in five health facilities in four counties between 2020 and 2023, prosecutors said. Her victims ranged in age from 43 to 104.
Coworkers often questioned Pressdee’s conduct and said she frequently showed disdain for her patients and made derogatory comments about them, authorities said.
Prosecutors alleged that Pressdee, of Harrison, gave excessive amounts of insulin to 22 patients, including some who weren’t diabetic.
The accused nurse, Pressdee, typically administered the insulin during overnight shifts, taking advantage of the low staff in the hospital and knew that the emergencies wouldn’t prompt immediate hospitalisation.
Most of the patients died soon after receiving the insulin dose, or some time later. Her nursing licence was suspended early last year, not long after the initial charges were filed.
Pressdee could have faced a death sentence but she pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder.
She initially was charged in May 2023 with killing two nursing home patients and injuring a third.
Further investigation led to dozens of more charges against her. During a February hearing in which she argued with her attorneys, she indicated that she wanted to plead guilty.
When one of her lawyers asked her why she was pleading guilty, Pressdee replied, “Because I am guilty”. She gave single-worded responses to most questions and said little as she entered her pleas.
The plea hearing was expected to last through Friday because several people wanted to give victim impact statements, officials said.
Some who spoke in court Thursday told Pressdee that she had wrongly tried to play God, noting that although some of her victims were elderly or very ill, none were ready to die.
Pressdee didn’t look at the speakers or react to their comments, even when one shouted an expletive at her that led the courtroom gallery to break out in applause, according to news reports.
Another speaker told the court: “She is not sick. She is not insane. She is evil personified. … “I looked into the face of Satan myself the morning she killed my father.”
According to court documents, Pressdee sent her mother texts between April 2022 and May 2023 in which she discussed her unhappiness with various patients and colleagues, and spoke about potentially harming them.
She also voiced similar complaints about people she encountered at restaurants and other places.
Pressdee had a history of being “disciplined for abusive behaviour towards patients and/or staff at each facility resulting in her resigning or being terminated,” prosecutors said in court documents.
Beginning in 2018, Pressdee held a number of jobs at western Pennsylvania nursing homes and facilities for short periods, according to the documents.
Other health care workers have been convicted of killing patients.
Among them is William Davis, a Texas nurse who was convicted of capital murder in 2021 for injecting air into the arteries of four patients after they underwent heart surgery.
He was sentenced to death but is appealing his conviction.
Another nurse, Charles Cullen, killed at least 29 nursing home patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but some experts believe he may have killed many more.
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