PrimeWire

USA Today 17 January 2020

“A former Texas pediatric nurse who had been scheduled for mandatory release after serving time for killing a child in 1981, pleaded guilty Thursday to another infant death, receiving a life sentence that prosecutors said would likely mean she will die in prison.

Genene Jones, 69, who was dubbed by local media as the “killer nurse” following the deaths of dozens of children at a San Antonio hospital more than three decades ago, was imprisoned in 1984 for killing one child and giving an overdose to another.

Jones had been scheduled for release in 2018 under a mandatory release law in effect at the time of her convictions. But in 2017, prosecutors cited new evidence and filed the five new murder charges against her.

On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to killing 11-month-old Joshua Weeks, who investigators say overdosed on an anti-seizure drug. Four other murder charges were dropped in the plea bargain, although family members were allowed to present impact statements to the court.

Connie Weeks, Joshua’s mother, said her family was “glad today that you will never see daylight as a free woman and your life will end in captivity for killing my son, Joshua.”

“I hope for you to life a long and miserable life behind bars,” Weeks said. “Goodbye.”