EKB News

Thirty-two year old Maria Kelly Whitt of Mount Sterling, a nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Lexington, appeared at a detention hearing Thursday after being indicted for the murder of 90 year old Jesse L. Chain, a patient who died in September 2006. A U.S. Veteran Affairs Special Agent testified at the hearing that Chain died after receiving a lethal 75 mg. dose of morphine, administered just six-and-one-half hours earlier. The agent also testified two other patients in the care of Whitt had died under suspicious circumstances. An 88 year old man with heart problems and a 60 year old man who suffered a massive heart attack died after being given morphine. The detention hearing is scheduled to resume next Wednesday.

At her arraignment on Friday, her attorney entered a not guilty plea, and a December 7th. trial date was set.