‘She’s pure evil’: Nurse gets life in prison after admitting she intentionally gave patients excess insulin, prosecutors say
Originally Published: 02 MAY 24 21:15 ET
Updated: 03 MAY 24 10:38 ET
By Brammhi Balarajan, Jillian Sykes and Caroll Alvarado, CNN
(CNN) — A nurse accused of killing three patients at skilled nursing facilities across Pennsylvania and attempting to kill 19 other people in her care pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison, according to a news release from Attorney General Michelle Henry.
Former nurse Heather Pressdee’s sentence includes three consecutive life sentences for the first-degree murders and 380 to 760 years of consecutive incarceration for the attempted murders, the release says.
“The defendant used her position of trust as a means to poison patients who depended on her for care,” Henry said. “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.”
Pressdee, 41, pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, her attorney Phillip DiLucente told CNN on Thursday.
The daughter of victim Irene Simons said she’ll “never forgive” Pressdee for what she did.
“We’re angry and hurt that she disguised herself as a caring nurse,” Elizabeth Simons Ozella told CNN affiliate WTAE. “She took someone from this earth that she had no right to take, and she played God when she didn’t have that right.”
“She’s pure evil,” victim Nicholas Cymbol’s sister Melinda Brown said, according to WTAE. “There’s no justice for this. We’ll get justice when she meets her maker.”
Some of the victims’ relatives gave impact statements this week in Butler County Court, the attorney general said, sharing the “pain and anguish caused by learning their loved one’s death was not natural, but was caused by a criminal act.”
Pressdee was charged with intentionally administering lethal and potentially lethal doses of medication to patients between 2020 and 2023 at five care facilities.
She injected the insulin into patients across Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Westmoreland counties, the attorney general said.
She was initially charged in May 2023 with homicide and attempted murder after two men died and a third was hospitalized, CNN previously reported. Pressdee has been incarcerated since her May arrest.
In the criminal complaint filed against the former nurse, Henry’s office said Pressdee admitted to “harming, with the intent to kill” the 19 patients, whose ages ranged from 43 to 104.
She would often administer insulin during the low-staffed night shift hours while working the medicine cart at the facilities, the criminal complaint stated.
“Pressdee often took steps to ensure her victims would expire prior to shift change so that they wouldn’t be sent to the hospital where her scheme could be discovered through medical testing such as C-peptide tests,” according to the criminal complaint.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
