Former nursing assistant Reta Mays, now sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison for killing at least eight patients at a VA hospital, may serve that time at the only comprehensive medical facility for female federal prisoners.
Mays, 46, has a request to be assigned to the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, which is a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, for female inmates with special medical and mental health needs.
“That means that women from all security and custody levels with different medical and psychiatric conditions can be and are housed there.” said Gordon Zilberman, a San Diego-based forensic psychologist who evaluated offenders and provided mental health services for decades in prisons.
“The Bureau of Prisons will have her evaluated and determine what medical and/or psychiatric treatment she needs.”
A judgment filed in her case by U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh reflects the request. Mays does not yet appear to be assigned in the federal prison system and so far remains at the Northern Regional Jail in West Virginia, awaiting transfer.
“Just because the judge recommended it, does not mean she will be sent there directly. She will be sent there if the BOP decides to do so (population limitations, medical concerns or lack of, etc.),” Zilberman said. “However, given her life sentence and publicity, she probably will go there initially.”
Mays’ defense, which was aimed at reducing the length of her sentence, focused on her deteriorated mental and emotional fitness. She pleaded guilty, so the remaining question was how much time she would serve.
The judgment filed by Kleeh also states several special conditions for her incarceration. A couple lay out terms for mental health treatment.
“You must participate in a mental health treatment program and follow the rules and regulations of that program,” the judge directed.
And, “You must take all mental health medications that are prescribed by your treating physician.”
Moreover, there are several special conditions related to alcohol use.
“You must participate in an alcohol abuse treatment program,” the judge wrote. Also, “You must not use or possess alcohol.” Finally, “You must not knowingly enter any bar or tavern without first obtaining permission from the probation officer.”
FMC Carswell is located at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, formerly known as Carswell Air Force Base. The prison facility formerly served as the medical center for the Air Force base. The main building has a capacity of 600 prisoners.
The prison holds several high-profile inmates, including Kristen Gilbert, a former nurse at the VA Medical Center in Northampton, Massachusetts, who is serving a life term for fatally injecting four patients with the heart stimulant epinephrine.
One of the defense attorneys who represented Mays, David Hoose of Northampton, Mass., represented Gilbert in her 2001 trial that resulted in a life sentence rather than the death penalty.
An earlier inmate at Carswell was Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford. Fromme initially served her sentence at Federal Prison Camp Alderson in West Virginia, but attempted to escape in 1987 to meet Manson. She was captured two days later and was transferred to Carswell, remaining until her 2009 parole.
Mays was sentenced May 11 for 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 also pleaded guilty to administering insulin to “R.R.P.,” another patient who was not diabetic, with intent to kill him.
Mays admitted causing their deaths by administering unnecessary and lethal doses of insulin while she worked the overnight shift at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg. She had obtained the insulin from supplies at the hospital, although she was not supposed to possess it or administer it.
The deaths spanned from June, 2017, until June 15, 2018. Three of the veterans died April 8, 9 and 10, 2018.
At her May 11 sentencing, Mays provided no explanation of her actions.
“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.
“I don’t ask anyone for forgiveness because I don’t think I could forgive anyone for doing what I did,” said Mays, who made the statement while weeping and couldn’t continue.
Leading up to the sentencing, her defense attorneys had focused on gathering records about Mays’ mental health dating back to her 2003 deployment to Iraq, where she was a chemical equipment repairer with the West Virginia National Guard’s 1092nd Engineer Battalion.
During that time, her lawyers said at this month’s sentencing hearing, she was attacked and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder.
Her lawyers pointed to a history of medical and mental health problems during the sentencing hearing. In the early 1990s, they said, she experienced post-partum depression and was treated for recurrent depression. More recently, she experienced major depressive disorder, adjustment disorder, anxiety and depression.
“Reta Mays struggled with a number of medical and mental health issues and was a patient being treated at the VAMC,” said one of her attorneys, Jay McCamic, who requested a sentence on the lower end on the lower end of the possible 30 years to life range.
“The fact that Reta Mays, with her well-documented mental health issues, was assigned to care for those men on Ward 3A at the same time she was a patient being treated for mental health issues is a grievous fact.”
Aspects of the job she took at the VA medical center in 2015 served as triggers on her mental health, McCamic said. In a followup visit to a mental health clinic in 2017, the lawyer said, Mays commented “I feel like I can’t control anything” and “I am afraid I will hurt someone else in the moment.”
McCamic said her motive was outside the bounds of rational behavior.
“Unfortunately the ‘why’ can’t be answered here. Reta doesn’t know why. Her family doesn’t know why. The prosecution doesn’t know why. No one knows. Mental health professional can only speculate and offer some theories, but they don’t know why,” McCamic said.
But he said Mays had a number of “well-documented mental health issues that were exacerbated by a number of stressors and triggers which piled upon her brick-by-brick until any ability that she had within her to maintain clear thinking collapsed.”
Judge Kleeh acknowledged those mental health problems, but said others with similar problems don’t become serial killers.
“So many of this country’s veterans suffer from their service,” he said. “So many folks who were born and raised and live here in West Virginia have hard lives. Those are all sad truths, but they’re truths.
“The timeline of events does not, in any way, support this notion that you were compelled to do what you did, that you somehow had diminished capacity in making these decisions that you made.”