Accused killer nurse Heather Pressdee expected to plead guilty Thursday

A Harrison nurse accused of intentionally administering insulin overdoses to 22 nursing home patients — including 17 who died — is expected to plead guilty Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court.

A hearing in the case against Heather Pressdee is scheduled for two days before Judge Joseph E. Kubit.

Pressdee, 41, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted homicide stemming from her work at five nursing homes in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong and Butler counties between 2020 and 2023.

The victims ranged in age from 43 to 104.

Dozens of victim impact statements are expected to be read in court.

At a hearing in February, Pressdee indicated her wish to plead guilty, actively arguing with her defense attorneys, Phil DiLucente and James DePasquale at counsel table.

“I want to sign and be done,” she told them. “You guys aren’t helping me. I keep trying to talk to you, and you’re not helping me.”

DiLucente responded that the judge wouldn’t accept a plea without the defense lawyers having seen all of the prosecution’s evidence.

Although the court docket lists the hearings on Thursday and Friday as status conferences, the most recent entry shows that both the prosecution and defense have agreed to skip a presentence report, indicating that Pressdee will be sentenced during the proceedings.

Robert Peirce III, a Pittsburgh attorney representing five families whose loved ones were alleged victims, said they all have been contacted by the state Attorney General’s Office to provide victim-impact statements at the hearing Thursday and Friday.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Attorney General’s Office notified the media about the status conference.

“We are limited in making public comments to what is contained on the public court calendar,” the Attorney General’s Office said.

Pressdee initially was arrested last May on charges involving three patients. The Attorney General’s Office announced charges for 19 more victims in November.

Investigators said Pressdee worked at 11 local nursing facilities since 2018 and was fired repeatedly for patient mistreatment.

Investigators said she provided a fake phone number for job referrals on multiple occasions and used a family member to provide references.

In the earlier set of charges when Pressdee was accused of killing two patients in Butler County, she told police she hated to see her patients in pain and wanted to end their misery, according to the criminal complaint.

But the charges filed in November paint a much different portrait.

Police said Pressdee sent text messages to her mother that showed a lust for death.

On Dec. 25, 2022, she wrote from work: “I can’t with this lady tonight. She’s going to get pillow therapy,” according to investigators.

In another, they said, Pressdee wrote: “Well, she’s alive and she may die now.”

Police said Pressdee was meticulous in her effort to ensure the patients didn’t survive. In multiple instances, if the insulin dose wasn’t effective, police said, Pressdee would create an air embolism with a syringe.

She killed a 104-year-old nondiabetic patient on March 21, 2023, after calling the woman “disgusting” and asking “When is she going to die already?” investigators said.

Four days after that, when an insulin overdose didn’t kill a 90-year-old patient, she flushed the man’s insulin port twice to cause an embolism, the complaint said.

Investigators said Pressdee would administer insulin at night when fewer staff were present, making it less likely for emergencies to be noticed. She also planned for her victims to die before shift change so that they weren’t sent to the hospital where her actions could be discovered, they said.

In one instance, Pressdee told investigators she left a dead 99-year-old woman in her room. When another nurse found her, Pressdee assisted with CPR.

Colleagues at many of the facilities had suspicions about her, and one hospital physician reported his concerns in 2022 to the state Department of Health.

Still, nothing was done despite Pressdee making comments about certain patients needing to die, police said.

Last July, Pressdee, who became a registered nurse in 2018, consented to having her license suspended indefinitely by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs.

At least nine lawsuits have been filed by patients’ families against the nursing homes that employed Pressdee, including Guardian Healthcare, parent company of Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Lower Burrell; Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Butler; and Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Facility in Kittanning.

Peirce, the attorney for the families, said he expects the lawsuits to move forward after this week’s hearings.

“On behalf of all our clients, we are optimistic the resolution of the criminal case will help resolve some of their suffering,” he said.