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Ex nursing aide admits to murderBy Ron WordAssociated PressPALATKA, Fla. — A former nursing assistant with AIDS who confessed killing seven elderly patients, then said the confessions were bogus, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering one of those patients and was sentenced to life.Jeffrey Feltner, 27, who has said he gave bogus confessions to draw attention to poor conditions in nursing homes, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of a 75-year-old woman after prosecutors played recordings of his previous statements about the deaths.“Feltner heard his taped confessions and after hearing the evidence entered a plea of guilty,” said assistant state attorney David Damore.A jury had been seated for his trial just the day before.Feltner confessed numerous times during a year-long investigation of the seven suspicious retirement home deaths, police said, adding that the victims were smothered.Feltner was sentenced to life with a mandatory minimum of 25 years.He could have faced the death penalty if convicted of first-degreemurder in February 1988 of a 75-year-old resident of the New Life Acres retirement home in Melrose, a North Florida city 20 miles west of Palatka.“It was an excellent and wise move on his behalf,” said Feltner’s attorney, Howard Pearl. “But he denies killing anyone. His statements would have damaged him. I felt it was time for damage control.Feltner still faces murder charges in nearby Volusia County in the death of an 83-year-old woman andattorneys were trying to work out a plea in that case.Prosecutors did not press charges in the remaining five deaths; in four of those cases the bodies had already been cremated.Asked the motive for the killings, Damore replied: “You would have to ask Jeffrey Feltner. Obviously you have a person with a very troubled mind.”Pearl said Feltner has acquired immune deficiency syndrome and is receiving treatments with the drug AZT.“He wants to be treated for AIDS,” said Pearl. “He wants to recover his health”After he was arrested last summer and charged with killing a Volusia County patient, Feltner wrote a letter to his father and stepmother in Michigan explaining that he had not killed anyone, but had devised a plan that would help officials notice poor nursing-home conditions.“I wanted to spend what time I have left to do something that everyone would be proud of but like always, I messed up,” Feltner wrote.“When I went to work in the nursing homes and saw the abuse they were getting I told myself that I would try and help them,” he wrote. “Everything I tried to do did not work so I had to say that I killed some people, hoping that they would see the abuse that they were getting”
Newspaper Details
Altoona Mirror
Altoona, Pennsylvania, US
Wed, Jan 10, 1990
Page 17
Full Page
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Anonymous
CA 11 Jun 2022
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