A former Pennsylvania nurse who admitted that she administered excessive doses of insulin to nearly two dozen patients, 17 of whom died, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to murder and other charges.
The former nurse, Heather Pressdee, 41, administered high doses of insulin to 22 patients at five rehabilitation centers across Pennsylvania between 2020 and 2023, prosecutors said. The patients she was accused of mistreating ranged in age from 43 to 104.
Ms. Pressdee was initially charged in May 2023 with killing two nursing home patients and injuring a third. But in November, the state attorney general’s office came forward with additional charges after prosecutors said Ms. Pressdee admitted to trying to kill a total of 19 patients.
According to the attorney general’s office, first-degree murder charges were filed against Ms. Pressdee only in cases where “physical evidence” was available. Attempted-murder charges were filed, it said, in cases where “the victims either survived the excessive dosage of insulin, or the cause of death could not be determined.”
At her arraignment in November, Ms. Pressdee’s lawyer, Phillip P. DiLucente, said his goal was to avoid the death penalty. Capital punishment is legal though rarely used in Pennsylvania.
Ms. Pressdee pleaded guilty on Thursday to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder. As part of the plea agreement, she was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life in prison and another consecutive prison term of 380 to 760 years on the attempted murder charges, the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
“The defendant used her position of trust as a means to poison patients who depended on her for care,” the attorney general, Michelle Henry, said in the statement. “This plea and life sentence will not bring back the lives lost, but it will ensure Heather Pressdee never has another opportunity to inflict further harm.”
In a criminal complaint filed in November, prosecutors said Ms. Pressdee administered excessive amounts of insulin to patients, usually during overnight shifts when staffing was low.
Some patients were diabetic, others were not. If a patient did not die, Ms. Pressdee would take additional measures to kill the person, by administering a second dose of insulin or through “the use of an air embolism,” when one or more air bubbles blocks a vein or artery, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors detailed a history of troubling statements Ms. Pressdee made on social media and in conversations with colleagues, including “When is she going to die already?”
In a separate wrongful death lawsuit, staff members at one nursing home noticed that Ms. Pressdee had exhibited “troubling behavior” and that the health of patients in her care would “unexpectedly deteriorate.”
Several staff members, the lawsuit states, began referring to her as the Killer Nurse.
Mr. DiLucente did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Local news reports said families of Ms. Pressdee’s victims packed a Butler County courtroom on Thursday to provide victim impact statements.
“There’s no justice for this,” Melinda Brown, whose brother, Nicholas Cymbol, 43, was among Ms. Pressdee’s victims, told the ABC affiliate WTAE on Thursday. “She’ll get justice when she meets her maker.”
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