Nursing Assistant Who Admits To Murdering 7 Seniors At Hospital To Be Sentenced Tuesday

A 46-year-old woman from Harrison County, West Virginia, who admitted to killing seven elderly veterans at a hospital from mid-2017 to June 2018, is scheduled to be sentenced for her crimes Tuesday morning.

Reta Mays, a former nursing assistant, pleaded guilty in July last year to seven counts of second-degree murder and one count of assault with intent to commit murder, USA Today reported.

Mays admitted to giving lethal doses of insulin to the patients, aged 81 to 96, at the U.S. Veterans Affairs Hospital in Clarksburg, causing them to die from hypoglycemia.

Prosecutors sought a sentence of seven consecutive life terms for the murder charges and an additional 20 years for the assault charge.

According to a report by WBOY, Tuesday's 9:00 a.m. hearing will determine whether or not presiding U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh will uphold the sentences, additionally deciding whether the sentences should run either consecutively or concurrently.

The court is expected to hear impact statements from family members of Mays' victims. Representatives from various investigative agencies related to the case are also expected to hold a briefing following the sentencing.

Judge Kleeh has made the hearing available to the public via online video app Zoom. Federal court rules, however, prevent the video from being recorded, re-broadcast, and/or livestreamed. Viewers are also not allowed to take screenshots of the hearing.

The sentencing was initially scheduled for February this year, but the court postponed it after Mays' defense lawyers said they would not have enough time to complete their work due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, WBOY previously reported.

Authorities are yet to determine a motive for the killings, with former U.S. Attorney Bill Powell calling it the "million dollar question."

"She never told us why she did it," said Powell, whose office investigated Mays' case and brought the charges against her, West Virginia MetroNews reported. "Obviously, the families want to know. I'm curious to know, but I'm not sure anyone's going to walk away satisfied at the end," he added.

Though Mays entered guilty pleas related to eight deaths, evidence suggests that there could potentially be more deaths that Mays has not been charged with.

Mays has been held in the Northern Regional Jail, Moundsville, ever since her guilty plea last year, as per WBOY.