CLARKSBURG, W.Va. – Reta Mays, 46, the former worker at the Louis A. Johnson V. A. Medical in Clarksburg who has pleaded guilty to seven patient deaths. Mays injected the patients with insulin they didn’t need causing a hypoglycemic event that resulted in death.
Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia Bill Powell spent months investigating the case. The investigation included exhuming bodies, scouring hospital records and interviews culminating with a guilty plea from Mays in seven cases on July 14, 2020.
“What I hope is he gives her the maximum sentence- multiple consecutive life sentences, that’s what I hope,” Powell said on MetroNews Talkline,” I think that’s within his purview. There is no question she’ll spend the rest of her life in prison.”
During a plea hearing, Mays admitted to killing the veterans by injecting them with unprescribed insulin while she worked overnight shifts at the hospital between 2017 and 2018. For Powell, never really determining what the motive was is troubling.
“I don’t know of anything she could say that would make anybody feel better,” Powell said,” They certainly have had sufficient time, the judge has given them all the time in world to come up with some explanation, because they’re obviously looking for some kind of mitigation of sentence. So, I would presume they would say something on her behalf.”
During the July hearing Mays voice cracked as she answered questions from the judge. One of her last opportunities to speak before she is committed to prison will be the Tuesday sentencing hearing.
“I still don’t know the motivation,” Powell said,” It will be interesting to what she says if anything at the sentencing. She can make a statement if she chooses, I expect there’s nothing she can say to satisfy everybody.”
Mays has disclosed to the court she has been on medication for PTSD. Powell does not believe PTSD would be an effective to mitigate the sentence.