A Pennsylvania nurse accused of killing three patients at skilled nursing facilities across the state and trying to kill 19 other people in her care pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison, according to a Press release of the Attorney General of Pennsylvania Michelle Henrique.
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 of poisoning 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 that Heather Pressdee never has another opportunity to inflict further harm.”
Pressdee pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, her attorney Phillip DiLucente told CNN on Thursday.
Pressdee was accused of intentionally administering lethal and potentially lethal doses of medication to patients between 2020 and 2023 in five different care facilities.
Pressdee injected insulin into patients in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Westmoreland counties, according to the release.
She was initially charged in May 2023 with murder and attempted murder after two men died and a third was hospitalized, CNN previously reported. Pressdee has been incarcerated since her arrest in May.
In the criminal complaint filed against the former nurse, Henry’s office said Pressdee admitted to “harming, with intent to kill” the 19 patients, whose ages ranged from 43 to 104.
She frequently administered insulin during the short-staffed night shift while working the medication cart at the facility, the criminal complaint stated.
“Pressdee often took steps to ensure that his victims expired before their shift change so that they would not be sent to the hospital where his scheme could be discovered through medical examinations such as C-peptide tests,” according to the complaint criminal.
“Numerous relatives of the victims” gave impact statements this week in Butler County Court, the attorney general’s statement said, sharing the “pain and anguish caused by learning that your loved one’s death was not natural, but was caused by a criminal act.”
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