Forrest Kozul is getting closer to peace, but he is not ready to forgive the former nurse’s aide who killed his father in a veterans hospital.
“We don’t have the ability to wish her death, but I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to forgive her,” Kozul said today.
He was one of many still-grieving family members who witnessed confessed killer Reta Mays receive seven life sentences running consecutively, plus another 20 years, in the deaths of West Virginia veterans.
One of those was Robert Kozul, an Army veteran and a joy to his family.
“We’re OK. Yesterday was a very hard day, a very long-awaited day,” said Forrest’s wife, Becky Kozul. “We’ve had to relive his death throughout this whole investigation. Hopefully yesterday brought us a little bit of closure.”
Forrest and Becky Kozul, Son and Daughter-in-Law, join @HoppyKercheval to discuss the life of Robert Kozul. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/T7bJgHfYf6
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) May 12, 2021
Mays admitted to killing veterans Robert Kozul, Robert Edge Sr., Archie Edgell, George Shaw, a patient identified only as W.A.H., Felix McDermott and Raymond Golden. She is also accused of administering insulin to “R.R.P.,” another patient who was not diabetic, with intent to kill him.
All had checked into the hospital to seek healthcare and all had expected to recover. None were being treated for diabetes, yet their blood sugar crashed under suspicious circumstances. Mays admitted guilt their deaths by administering unnecessary and lethal doses of insulin while she worked the overnight shift.
Her sentencing in federal court this week revealed that Mays had sat up with the veterans at night, engaged in long conversations with worried family members, improperly administered insulin and then sometimes went home or, in some instances, directly participated in efforts to revive the very men she had imperiled.
The sentencing was a catharsis, but also brought back longstanding feelings of loss for family members. Several relatives attempted to describe heir loss during the sentencing hearing, either by speaking from the witness stand or on video.
“How can we even begin to explain what you took from us?” Becky Kozul asked, addressing Mays in the courtroom. “You decided he didn’t need to enjoy life any more or watch his family grow. Why should you ever be allowed out of prison to enjoy freedom?”
Robert Kozul was 89 when he died at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg. He was admitted to the hospital Jan. 18, 2018, after falling at home. He was discharged three days later but then was readmitted that Jan. 26 because of vision loss. An MRI revealed he’d had a stroke.
During the early morning hours that Jan. 29, Kozul became cold, clammy and lethargic. He was transferred to a critical care unit, and his blood sugar level was determined to be 27.
By 1 a.m. Jan. 30, he died.
Families who lost loved ones in that anguishing way now know Mays was the cause. But they still don’t have any relief of knowing why.
“There are no words I can say that would offer the families any comfort. I can only say that I’m sorry for the pain I caused the families and my family,” Mays said in court, standing, wearing an orange jumpsuit and crying throughout her short statement.
“I don’t ask anyone for forgiveness because I don’t think I could forgive anyone for doing what I did.”
The Kozuls, like other families, wanted to make it clear what they lost.
Robert served in the Army as a field artillery parachutist and spent his life in Fairmont. He worked at B&O Railroad before being hired at Westinghouse, long a major employer in the area, where he retired in 1989 as a machinist 1st class.
He was head usher, head greeter and a choir member at his church. He joined a local group for dulcimer enthusiasts. As a member of the Elks Club, he relished dining and dancing on Friday nights.
“Pappy was a wonderful man,” Becky Kozul said. “He loved life. He loved to dance. He loved to sing. He loved to play his harmonica.” And, she said, he was attentive to others. “He complimented everything about you. He was always appreciative of everything you did.”
The Kozuls believed Robert still had much life ahead to enjoy. At Christmas 2017, he found out he was going to be a great grandfather.
“He got so emotional. He cried,” Becky Kozul said. “He couldn’t wait to be a great grandfather. He didn’t get to see that happen.”
That kind of loss was lamented by the other families who spoke at the sentencing.
“You have deprived nine grandkids and 13 great grandkids of ever knowing that love,” said Robert Edge Jr., who spoke by video.
Robert Edge Sr. was a Navy veteran who died at age 82 at the veterans hospital. His son said he’d provided a lifetime of support for his family. “When it was time for me to take care of him, you took that away from me,” Robert Edge Jr. said in the video to Reta Mays.
Melanie Proctor, the youngest daughter of Felix McDermott, also spoke of loss.
“You took some of the greatest men of their prime, our loved ones, and you preyed on them at their weakest,” she said to Mays. “For that you are a coward.”
Judge Thomas Kleeh made a point of saying the victims’ names, describing their military service and their contributions in life. The judge said it would be disrespectful to describe them as “counts” or “charges.”
“You took the lives of these gentlemen into your own hands for reasons that remain and will forever remain unclear,” the judge said to Mays before sentencing her to consecutive life sentences.
“It wasn’t your call. It wasn’t your decision. That precious gift of every second we’re blessed to walk on their earth, you stole from each of your victims. You substituted your judgment. You stole that time from these gentlemen that you were charged to care for.”