A Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and other charges Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison.
Heather Pressdee, 41, was given three consecutive life sentences and another consecutive term of 380-760 years behind bars during a hearing in Butler, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Pittsburgh. She played a role in the deaths of at least 17 patients who lived in five health facilities in four counties between 2020 and 2023, prosecutors said.
The victims ranged in age from 43 to 104. Coworkers often questioned Pressdee's conduct and said she frequently showed disdain for her patients and made derogatory comments about them, authorities said.
Pressdee, who could have faced a death sentence, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder. She initially was charged in May 2023 with killing two nursing home patients and injuring a third. Further investigation led to dozens of more charges against her. During a February hearing in which she argued with her attorneys, she indicated that she wanted to plead guilty.
Pressdee said little as she entered her pleas, responding to most questions with a single word. When one of her lawyers asked her why she was pleading guilty, Pressdee replied, “Because I am guilty.”
The plea hearing was expected to last through Friday because several people wanted to give victim impact statements, officials said. Some who spoke in court Thursday told Pressdee that she had wrongly tried to play God, noting that although some of her victims were elderly or very ill, none were ready to die.
Pressdee didn't look at the speakers or react to their comments, even when one shouted an expletive at her that led the courtroom gallery to break out in applause, according to news reports.
Another speaker told the court: “She is not sick. She is not insane. She is evil personified. ... “I looked into the face of Satan myself the morning she killed my father.”
Prosecutors alleged that Pressdee, of Harrison, gave excessive amounts of insulin to patients, including some who weren't diabetic. She typically administered the insulin during overnight shifts, when staffing was low and the emergencies wouldn't prompt immediate hospitalization.
Her nursing license was suspended early last year, not long after the initial charges were filed.
According to court documents, Pressdee sent her mother texts between April 2022 and May 2023 in which she discussed her unhappiness with various patients and colleagues, and spoke about potentially harming them. She also voiced similar complaints about people she encountered at restaurants and other places.
Pressdee had a history of being “disciplined for abusive behavior towards patients and/or staff at each facility resulting in her resigning or being terminated,” prosecutors said in court documents. Beginning in 2018, Pressdee held a number of jobs at western Pennsylvania nursing homes and facilities for short periods, according to the documents.
Other health care workers have been convicted of killing patients. Among them is William Davis, a Texas nurse who was convicted of capital murder in 2021 for injecting air into the arteries of four patients after they underwent heart surgery. He was sentenced to death but is appealing his conviction. Another nurse, Charles Cullen, killed at least 29 nursing home patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but some experts believe he may have killed many more.
This image provided by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office shows Heather Pressdee. The Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and other charges Thursday, May 2, 2024 and sentenced to life in prison. (Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A massive Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea early Friday caused power cutoffs in the city of Sevastopol and set a refinery ablaze in southern Russia, Russian authorities said.
The drone raids marked Kyiv's attempt to strike back during Moscow's offensive in northeastern Ukraine, which has added to the pressure on outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces who are waiting for delayed deliveries of crucial weapons and ammunition from Western partners.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 51 Ukrainian drones over Crimea, another 44 over the Krasnodar region and six over the Belgorod region. It said Russian warplanes and patrol boats also destroyed six sea drones in the Black Sea.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol, which is the main base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet, said the drone attack damaged the city’s power plant. He said it could take a day to fully restore energy supplies and warned residents that power would be cut to parts of the city.
“Communal services are doing their best to restore the power system as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.
Razvozhayev also announced that schools in the city would be closed temporarily.
Earlier Ukrainian attacks damaged aircraft and a fuel storage facility at Belbek air base near Sevastopol, according to satellite images released by Maxar Technologies.
In the Krasnodar region, the authorities said a drone attack early Friday caused a fire at an oil refinery in Tuapse which was later contained. There were no casualties.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted refineries and other energy facilities deep inside Russia, causing significant damage.
Ukrainian drones also attacked Novorossiysk, a major Black Sea port. The Krasnodar region’s governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, said fragments of downed drones caused several fires but there were no casualties.
Belgorov Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, killing a woman and her 4-year-old child. Another attack set a fuel tank ablaze at a gas station in the region, he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops were fighting to halt Russian advances in the northeastern Kharkiv region that began late last week.
The town of Vovchansk, located just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Russian border, has been a hot spot in the fighting in recent days. Ukrainian authorities have evacuated some 8,000 civilians from the town. The Russian army’s usual tactic is to reduce towns and villages to ruins with aerial strikes before its units move in.
Russia has also been testing defenses at other points along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line snaking from north to south through eastern Ukraine. That line has barely changed over the past 18 months in what became a war of attrition. Recent Russian attacks have come in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the north and in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. The apparent aim is to stretch depleted Ukrainian resources and exploit weaknesses.
Follow AP's coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This image released by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of a destroyed MiG 31 fighter aircraft at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of destroyed MiG 31 fighter aircraft and fuel storage facility at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of a destroyed SU 27 fighter aircraft in revetment at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This image released by Maxar Technologies shows a damaged plane, likely a MiG 31 fighter aircraft, at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)
