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Nursing assistant who killed veterans starts life sentence at low-security Alabama facility

Reta Mays, the former nursing assistant sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of hospitalized veterans, has been assigned to Federal Correctional Institution Aliceville in Alabama.

Reta Mays

The facility is a low-security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp. There are 1,228 total inmates at the facility. The facility is relatively new, becoming operational in 2013.

At her sentencing, lawyers for Mays had requested a different facility, the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, which is a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, for female inmates with special medical and mental health needs.

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.

A judgment filed in her case by U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh reflected the request to be assigned to Carswell.

After her sentencing, Mays remained for a time at the Northern Regional Jail in West Virginia, awaiting transfer but that location turned out to be at Aliceville, Ala., instead.

Mays’ mental health was a significant aspect of her defense team’s efforts to minimize her sentence.

The judgment filed by Kleeh addressed 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, the judge addressed alcohol use. “You must participate in an alcohol abuse treatment program,” the judge wrote. Also, “You must not use or possess alcohol.”

Mays was sentenced May 11 for killing veterans Robert KozulRobert Edge Sr.Archie EdgellGeorge 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.





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