Former VA Nurse Charged in Vet's Overdose Death

In a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday morning, Maria K. Whitt, a former nurse at Lexington's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, has been charged with killing Jesse Lee Chain, a 90-year-old World War II veteran, by injecting him with lethal levels of morphine.

Full Article at:Ex-VA hospital nurse charged in vet's overdose death
By Jennifer Hewlett - jhewlett@herald-leader.com

A former nurse at Lexington's Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been charged in the death three years ago of a 90-year-old World War II veteran who was at the hospital off Cooper Drive.

In a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday morning, Maria K. Whitt is charged with killing Jesse Lee Chain by injecting him with lethal levels of morphine.

Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said that Chain had been a resident of the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore before he went to the VA hospital. Chain died in the hospital's intensive care unit Sept. 3, 2006, he said.

Ginn, who ruled the death a homicide, said the length of time it has taken to put the case before a grand jury might be because federal officials have been poring over the medical records of other Lexington VA Medical Center patients since it was determined that Chain's death was a homicide.