Trending

VA nursing assistant pleads guilty to intentionally killing 7 patients with insulin

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A former nursing assistant at a West Virginia veterans hospital pleaded guilty to intentionally killing seven patents at the facility with insulin, The Associated Press reported.

Reta Mays worked at Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

Mays said she killed the patients by injecting them with insulin that was not prescribed for them while she worked overnight shifts at the hospital. The deaths happened between 2017 and 2018 and were the subject of a federal investigation into mysterious deaths at the facility, the AP reported.

Prosecutors said uncovered have no motive as to why Mays allegedly killed the patients, The Washington Post reported.

Mays was a 46-year-old Army veteran when she was hired. She did not have any certification or license for patient care, the Post reported.

She told the judge overseeing her case that she was on medication for post-traumatic stress disorder. She served two stints as a member of the Army National Guard ― one from November 2000 to April 2001 and a second from February 2003 to May 2004. Mays had been deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, the Post reported.

A widow of one of the patients filed a lawsuit against the Veterans Affairs claiming that retired Air Force member George Nelson Shaw Sr. was given four insulin shots without a doctor’s order. The suit alleged the hospital did not securely store the medication and did not prevent unauthorized workers from accessing it.

Mays was not qualified to administer medications, officials said, according to the AP.

Hospital officials reported the deaths to the VA inspector general.

Mays was eventually fired after it was found she lied about her qualifications, the Post reported.

Mays was charged with seven counts of second-degree murder and one count of assault with the intent to commit murder. She faces life sentences for each murder, the AP reported.