Killer Nurse Sentenced to Multiple Life Terms

[bliss_eternal]

Killer Nurse Sentenced to Multiple Life Terms
Anguished Families of Victims Lash Out at 'Monster'
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, AP

SOMERVILLE, N.J. (March 2) - A nurse who killed at least 29 patients was sent to prison for the rest of his life Thursday after his victims' loved ones angrily branded him "vermin," "garbage" and a "monster" who ruined lives and shattered their faith in the medical profession.

Charles Cullen - one of the most prolific killers the U.S. health care industry has ever seen - escaped the death penalty after making a deal with prosecutors to tell them which patients he killed with hard-to-detect drug injections.

He received 11 consecutive life terms at a tense and sometimes turbulent hearing in which he came face-to-face with his victims' families for the first time. Wearing a bulletproof vest under his sweater, Cullen sat quietly as relatives wept and yelled at him from a lectern about 15 feet from where he sat.

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Cullen, 46, pleaded guilty to murdering 22 people in New Jersey and trying to kill three others. He will be sentenced later for seven murders and three attempted murders in Pennsylvania.

Cullen has claimed to have killed up to 40 people during a career that spanned 16 years and 10 nursing homes and hospitals.

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Link to article on AOL:


http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060302051609990004&cid=2194

The article also notes that he avoided the death penalty.