Pennsylvania Nurse Convicted and Sentenced in Murder Trial
Posted on 25. Mar, 2010 in News Stories
On September 26, 2002, Joy O’Shea Woomer arrived at the home of Brent Weaver, who was an 11-year-old boy with special needs. It was her first night as his private in-home nurse, and his family instructed her to call if there were any issues.
Then, for reasons still unknown, Brent’s family says Woomer injected Brent with a lethal dose of morphine, ending his life. According to prosecutors, it was because she was tired.
At trial, Joy testified that she never gave Brent any medications and had no reason to kill him. Nevertheless, on January 14 of this year, a jury convicted her of three charges: third-degree murder (prosecution had sought first-degree), drug delivery resulting in death, and delivery of a controlled substance. Despite the conviction, Joy still has tremendous support from people who say she was a nice person and could never have done the crime.
Yesterday, she was sentenced to 7-20 years in prison and asked $6,715 in restitution to the victim’s family.
You can read more about this news story from Lancaster Online.
cheecochihuahua
Mar 25th, 2010
Hmm…This story is quite vague. How much morphine was used? Was the morphine prescribed for this patient? Who all in the home had access to the MSO4? Was it a pharmacy issue of dispensing wrong amount? Was there issues with the prior caretakers/ home health nurses that resulted in hiring this new LPN? Be nice to have more facts. Horrible to convict a person on an assumption.
What_The_Heck
Mar 28th, 2010
I agree Cheeco, how and why was the morphine on site?
june
Mar 30th, 2010
Too little facts. Where did the morphine come from and how much? Why would an LPN have morphine? Could other people have access to this child? Seems this nurse was convicted on circumstanstial evidence.
dani
Apr 4th, 2010
Did anyone investigate the parents ?