Pennsylvania nurse sentenced to life in prison after admitting she intentionally gave patients excessive doses of insulin, prosecutors say

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Pennsylvania nurse accused of killing Three patients in skilled nursing facilities across the state and attempted to kill 19 other people in their care pleaded guilty Thursday and were sentenced to life in prison, according to a news release from Pennsylvania 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 said.

“The defendant used her position of trust as a means to poison patients who depended on her for care,” Henry said. “This plea and sentence of life in prison will not restore the lives lost, but it will ensure that Heather Pressdee never has another opportunity to inflict more 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 medications to patients between 2020 and 2023 at five different care facilities.

Pressdee had injected insulin to patients in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Westmoreland counties, according to the statement.

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 jailed 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.

He often administered insulin during short-staffed night shift hours while working the medicine cart at the facility, according to the criminal complaint.

“Pressdee often took steps to ensure that his victims expired before shift change so that they would not be sent to the hospital where his scheme could be discovered through medical tests such as C-peptide testing,” according to the criminal complaint.

“Numerous family members of the victims” gave powerful statements this week in Butler County Court, according to the attorney general’s news release, sharing the “pain and anguish caused by learning that their loved one’s death was not natural, but was caused by a criminal act.