Pennsylvania nurse convicted for murder of boy with CP

From the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal in Pa.:

A Lancaster County nurse was convicted Jan. 15 of murdering 11-year-old Brent Weaver (pictured), a cerebral palsy patient.

Joy O'Shea Woomer, 50, wiped tears from her eyes as members of the Lancaster County jury stood one by one and pronounced her guilty of third-degree murder.

The child's mother, Carol Weaver, sitting in the spectator section of the courtroom, leaned forward, covered her face with her hands and whispered repeatedly, "Thank you," as the verdict was announced.

It was Carol Weaver, prosecutors said, who persisted in seeking answers as to why her son died from a lethal dose of morphine in the family's East Hempfield Township home on Sept. 27, 2002.

"She continually pushed for justice for her son," Assistant District Attorney Karen Mansfield, one of the prosecutors in the case, said afterward, and since the day Brent died, "she never stopped."

Prosecutors argued the morphine could only have been administered when the child was solely in the care of Woomer, his private-duty nurse.

In addition to third-degree murder, Woomer was convicted of drug delivery resulting in death and delivery of a controlled substance — charges that could result in a total maximum sentence of 27½ to 55 years in prison.

The jury deliberated long and hard before coming to a conclusion, said one juror, who asked not to be named.

"All of us believed that Joy O'Shea Woomer is a good person who made a bad mistake," the juror said.

During their discussions, the jurors considered every bit of evidence, from the prosecution's timeline to the expert witnesses, the juror said.

"It was such a difficult decision," he said. "We took a long time, and we did not take this cavalierly."

The jurors considered every possibility, he said.

"We talked about everything," he said. "We looked at everything. Trust me."

In the end, the verdict reflected their belief that Woomer's actions led to the boy's death.

"I think the circumstances were clear in that the timeline was clear," he said.

When the jurors left the courthouse Friday night, they were spent.

"Twelve people," he said, "poured their heart into this."

After the decision was announced shortly before 5 p.m., jurors were asked to stand individually and repeat their verdict.

One young woman on the jury started crying as she spoke, causing two others to fight back tears.

Judge David Ashworth ordered Woomer returned to county prison, where she has been held since her arrest in October 2008, until she is sentenced at a later date.

Defense attorney Christopher Patterson asked for a background investigation before sentence is imposed.

The reason, Patterson said afterward, is so Ashworth can read about "all the good that Joy has done in her life. … It tells you the type of person she is."

Woomer's family and friends, including her two teenage children, left the courtroom in tears after the verdict was announced.

"Joy is very, very upset," Patterson said.

A licensed practical nurse for 25 years, Woomer, of East Hempfield Township, consistently denied giving the boy any medication.

"This is a gut-wrenching case," Patterson said. "There is no reason why she would do this."

The jurors obviously "didn't make a snap decision," Patterson said.

"We don't agree with it," but do respect it, he said.

Prosecutors, accompanied by Carol Weaver, her husband, Mark, and their sons, Joseph and Jason, held a news conference after the verdict and displayed a large color photograph of Brent.

Assistant District Attorney Randall Miller, who prosecuted the case with Mansfield, said "third-degree murder is absolutely the correct verdict."

Third-degree murder is not specific intent to kill but is a reckless disregard and extreme indifference to the value of human life.

Drug delivery resulting in death is when a drug is given illegally, again with malice, and results in death. It carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison.

Delivery of a controlled substance, in this case, morphine, is the transfer of a drug from one person to another.

Miller repeated his theory that Woomer gave Brent the morphine that night because she didn't want to work and care for the child.

"Brent Michael Weaver never spoke, never walked," Miller said, but his family "knew when he was happy, knew when he was sad, and he would've lived a long life, and she took it away."

During the two-week trial, Miller defended the boy's parents, who included the child in all their activities, remodeled their home for him and had made plans for his long-term care.

Because Mark and Carol Weaver were the only other adults in the home that night, the question arose whether they could have been involved in their son's death. The parents both agreed to take a lie detector test, District Attorney Craig Stedman said, "and both passed with flying colors."

There was only one person alone with the child, Stedman said, and "she had sole custody and access to him."

"Nobody here takes pleasure in these things," Stedman said, but Mansfield and Miller took the case to trial "and the jury did the right thing."

While the Weavers declined to comment, a family friend, Joell Ketcham, thanked the jury "for seeing the truth and honoring Brent for living a life."

East Hempfield Township police Detective Paul Fitzsimmons, the lead police investigator, said neither he nor anyone else in his department ever gave up on the case.

"When you receive hundreds of phone calls from a crying mother," Fitzsimmons said, "you can't quit."

Fitzsimmons credited Mansfield and Stedman for "taking a second look at the case and believing in it."