"Nurse Aide Who Arbitrarily Euthanized 7 U.S. Veterans Called the 'Worst Monster'"

Claiming to "end life with dignity,"
charged with insulin lethal dose administration and murder
US court sentences 7 consecutive life imprisonments

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] "An unprecedented worst monster." The U.S. court sentenced a nursing assistant who euthanized veterans hospitalized at a U.S. veterans hospital without consent to seven consecutive life sentences.

According to CBS and others on the 12th (local time), Thomas Klea, judge of the Northern District Federal Court of West Virginia, sentenced Leta Mace (46), who was charged with seven counts of second-degree murder and assault with intent to kill, to seven consecutive life sentences the day before.

Mace was tried on charges of injecting lethal doses of insulin into seven veterans in their 80s and 90s at the Louis A. Johnson Veterans Hospital in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where she worked as a nursing assistant from 2017 to 2018. It was later confirmed that the victims could have lived longer if properly treated.

Mace's crimes were uncovered after the hospital, suspicious of the consecutive deaths, requested an audit from the Department of Veterans Affairs. During the audit, Mace admitted her guilt and claimed she administered insulin because she thought the victims were suffering and wanted them to end their lives with dignity. She also reportedly stated that amid confusion and great stress in hospital life and personal life, injecting insulin into the victims gave her a sense of control over her emotions.

Like the victims, Mace was also a soldier and was known to have suffered from mental health issues such as depression and anxiety for a long time due to her military service and childhood experiences. Mace's defense requested leniency on this basis, but it was not accepted.

It was also revealed that at the time of the crimes, she searched the internet for "female serial killers" and watched a Netflix TV show about people who killed others using their knowledge and profession as nurses. Mace did not disclose her motive in court but apologized tearfully to the bereaved families before the sentencing.

Judge Klea said, "Those who counseled you emphasized not to see you as a monster, but I do not agree. You are the worst monster no one could have expected."