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Woman pleads to VA deaths

CLARKSBURG — With the families of her victims in the courtroom, a Harrison County woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to the murders of seven veterans who were patients at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg.

Reta Mays, 46, was a nursing assistant at the facility and the person of interest at the onset of an investigation started two years ago by federal authorities.

“The investigative work and the time it took to do it was always done with an eye toward honoring these men. Though we can’t bring these men back because of her evil acts, we hope the conclusion of the investigation and guilty plea helps ease the pain of the victims’ families,” U.S. Attorney Bill Powell of the Northern District of West Virginia, said.

Powell and law enforcement officers held a press conference Tuesday following a hearing in District Court in Clarksburg where Mays pleaded guilty to seven counts of second-degree murder and one count of assault to commit murder. All the veterans died under similar circumstances, hypoglycemia caused by an unprescribed injection of insulin, and were patients in the same ward and in the same time period, according to the information against Mays unsealed on Tuesday.

With her attorneys at her side and her voice nearly breaking at several points, Mays admitted she committed the acts as specified by the government and pleaded guilty to all charges. She faces life in prison without the chance of parole on the murder charges and 20 years on the assault charge.

Powell cited the work by the FBI, the Veterans Administration Office of the Inspector General, West Virginia State Police, the Greater Harrison Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force, federal prosecutors, Attorney General Bill Barr and the “the families of the victims who never wavered in their support of this investigation.

“We look forward to the conclusion of this matter at the sentencing, where we will be seeking the maximum penalty,” Powell said.

VA Inspector General Michael J. Missal, calling the incidents “tragic and heartbreaking,” said investigators responded within a day upon notification and identified Mays as a person of interest within days.

She was quickly removed from taking care of people, he said.

“That act alone may have saved countless lives,” Missal said.

Doug Olson, FBI acting special agent in charge, said there is an increased expectation that veterans receive good medical care.

“These veterans and their families put their trust in this nursing assistant and she betrayed that trust and decided to pick who lived and who died,” he said.

It two years to carry out a thorough and complete investigation, Olson said.

“We don’t take that lightly in this case or any case,” Olson said.

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