Former VA Medical Center staffer confesses to killing seven patients

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• A former nurse assistant admitted to murdering seven veteran military patients at VA medical hospital by administering them with unprescribed insulin.
• While the suspect pleaded guilty to the crime, her intention in committing the murder was yet to be determined.
• Sen. Joe Manchin was optimistic that justice would be finally served despite the case’s slow progress.

On Tuesday, a former staff member of a West Virginia veterans hospital admitted to murdering seven patients with deadly amounts of insulin, putting an end to the extensive federal investigation into cases of unresolved deaths in the medical facility.

Reta Mays, a former nursing staff at Clarksburg’s Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center, was charged with second-degree murder of seven counts, and assault with intentional murder of another person.

 She will be imprisoned with life sentences, one for every murder committed.

During the hearing for the plea, the 46-year-old Mays admitted to intentionally killing the patients by administering them with insulin while working as a nurse at the northern West Virginia hospital from 2017-2018.

Mays’ voice was clear during the hearing, and she appeared slightly crying while the details of the charges were read to her.

According to U.S. Attorney Bill Powell, the authorities are yet to determine Mays’ motive even though she already confessed to the killing.

Powell hopes the recent development and guilty plea would lessen the pain to the families caused by Mays’ criminal act.

Tuesday’s hearing named Mays publicly as the main suspect for the murders for the first time after several affected families charged VA leadership for widespread failure in its system.

The widow of the 81-year-old victim George Nelson Shaw Sr., filed a case versus the VA claiming her husband received four insulin shots without prescription in March 2018. This was because the hospital did not secure its medicine supplies.

Mays was an assistant nurse and was not authorized to apply medications.

A spokesperson for the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center said that its authorities reported the killings to the inspector general and confirmed they fired Mays.

Powell told reporters the case, at first,  was with 11 fatalities, and they required the exhumation of the victims. The prosecutors filed the charges where there is adequate proof against the former nurse assistant.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin had earlier told Attorney General William Barr that he was worried how slow the probe was going. He noted that his office received the report from the VA inspector general that the investigation commenced in July 2018.

Manchin further said on Tuesday that while there was a delay, he was hopeful that justice would be finally served.

Considered as the second-largest department in the U.S government, the VA is overseeing at least 9 million veterans patients. VA’s former director was sacked in 2018 over ethics scandal accusations rising conflict within the agency. President Trump designated a doctor as a replacement but have had to pull out because of misconduct issues.

Source: AOL