Kristen Gilbert, Study notes of Nursing

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Kristen

Dayna-Joy Calubaquib Forensic Science Period 7

Case Study Project :

Gilbert

• Kristen Heather Strickland was born on November 13, 1967 in Fall River, Massachusetts.
• American serial killer who convicted three first-degree murders, one second-degree murder and two attempted murders of patients admitted for care at Veterans Affairs Medical Center
• Killed her patients by injected them with epinephrine, causing them to have heart attacks

WHO IS KRISTEN GILBERT?

HEAT

OF

PASSION

• Entering her teen years, friends and family took notice that she has become a habitual liar and was prone to neurotic behavior - Unfounded claim that she was a distant relative of the infamous ax murderer Lizzie Borden - Ex-boyfriends described her as controlling and strange, eventually exhibiting a pattern of verbal and physical abuse towards them

• In 1990 Gilbert’s had START OF THE CRIMES their first child, a son.
• Returning from maternity leave, she switched to 4PM to Midnight shift -^ Unusually large number of patients began dying due to cardiac arrest
• Tripling the rate of death over the previous 3 years
• Calm and competent nursing skills shone and won the admiration of her fellow workers

THE AFFAIR

CONTINUE

• Perrault presented Kristen a ultimatum to leave Glen, or end their relationship, Kristen promptly told Glen she was leaving
• In December, Kristen left her husband and kids ad moved into her own apartment, Her relationship with Perrault was in full bloom n
• In the fall of 1994, the relationship between Kristen and Perrault moved from friendship to intimacy.
• Glenn, Kristen’s husband became convinced his wife was trying to kill him, by the odd taste the food had Kristen has served him and telling her friends that she wanted him dead by Thanksgiving

Unanswered Deaths

• A lot of patients were still dying on Kristen’s shift.
• Many chose not to believe she would be involved in something as sinister as killing the patients
• VA Hospital began monitoring the drugs which could cause cardiac arrest, Epinephrine kept coming up missing - Under a close eye of a handful of the nurses assigned to it

Details of Crime (Case #2)

Kenneth Cutting

• February 2, 1996
  • 41 year old patient, who had lost eyesight and use of his

limbs, was being treated in the ICU for sepsis

• Gilbert asked if she would be able to go home early if her

patient was to died, she had a date with Perrault

• 40 minutes later, Cutting suffered a cardiac arrest, allegedly

while he alone was with Gilbert

Details of Crime (Case #3)

Stanley Jagodowski

“Ow, ow, you’re killing me” - Yelled from his room on August 21, 1995

• Died at the age of 66 in 1995
• Gilbert entered the room with a syringe, the patient was not ordered to take

any intravenous medication

• Jagodowski went into cardiac arrest, and died that following day
• Truck driver who served in the Korean War

BEHAVIOR

DURING

INVESTIGATION

• Gilbert tried unsuccessfully to convince him to change his mind about ending the affair
• July 8, 1996
  • Overdosed on drugs and was admitted to the hospital
  • While in hospital, she phoned Perrault and said “You know I did it. You wanted to know. I killed those guys.”
• Bomb Threat
  • Purchasing a toy to disguise her voice and called the VA hospital while Perrault was on duty
  • 15 Months in Federal Prison

THE PROSECUTION

William Welch

Representing the victims and family of victims

• Kristen intentionally and incorrectly used drugs against patients that would

cause heart failure

• Proved to the court with medical records of the victims that some of the

victims who had died of cardiac arrest had no previous heart problems so

their death had to have been caused by the epinephrine in their tissue.

• Reliable witnesses they called to the stand who testified against Kristen
  • James Perrault, Bonnie Bledsoe, Kathy Rix

The prosecution asks that the court finds Kristen guilty of 1st degree murder on

all counts, and be sentenced to death

THE TRIAL

• Kristen Gilbert’s trial took place at the federal court

house and lasted from November 2000 - March 2001

• Prosecution accused Gilbert of murdering her patients

for the thrill of it and to impress her new lover at the

workplace

• The verdict of the trial ended up Gilbert being

convicted of three counts of first degree murder, one

count of second degree murder, and two counts of

attempted murder

• Gilbert had the possibility of being sentenced to death

because the crimes were taken place on government

property, but instead the judge sentenced Kristen to

life in prison

• 7 Years working at the VA Hospital, 350 deaths had occurred on her shift

EVIDENCE

(THEORY)

• No evidence was found on sight
• Federal Investigators exhumed several of the bodies of those who died during Kristen’s shift
• Toxicology analysis epinephrine in their tissues
  • Drug wasn't prescribe to any of the victims, there is no reason for it to be in their bodies - Theory: Gilbert stole the drug from hospital stock and used it to induce massive heart attacks in her victims. She administered epinephrine to her patients so that her lover, James Perrault, would be summoned to the ICU, where she could be close to him and impress him with her skills as a nurse

COULD HAVE IT BEEN DIFFERENT?

• Most of the reason to why Kristen spent a long time committing these crimes without anyone ever finding out about it was because they didn’ t suspect it was her because she was such a good worker

Nowadays, everything is more secure like more cameras and more security. Everything is advancing

*Technology is changing constantly but I don’t think the outcome would of came out any different.

• They just needed to investigate a little early instead of waiting

MY

OPINION

I believe that Kristen Gilbert needed to be founded

guilty.

I feel like it was unfair

for all these innocent

patients just to die,

while Kristen was only

sentenced to only life in

prison because there is

no death penalty in

Massachusetts

• I would of done the

investigation earlier, once

the death rate started

tripling instead of waiting.

• They should've done a

check of all the nurses in

the hospital right then and

there because many people

innocent people were dying