UTAH: Guardian of Abused Woman Kept in Closet Sent to Prison for Her Death

Those who loved Christina “Nina” Harms drove 1,500 miles from their homes in Minnesota and South Dakota to stand in front of a judge Friday and tell them about the person they lost.

They wore T-shirts printed with Harms’ smiling face. They carried a cardboard display covered in pictures of the woman throughout her life.

“Nina wanted to go to college, she wanted more kids, she was very loving,” Marilee Nelson said. “She loved her daughter more than anything. Nina was the most loving person you would ever meet.”

Harms was 22 when she died on March 25, 2011, as the result of abuse and neglect in the Kearns home she shared with the woman who was her guardian, Cassandra Marie Shepard, their children and Shepard’s mother and stepfather.

“I don’t think there will ever be understanding, but today there will be justice,” 3rd District Judge Katie Bernards-Goodman said before sentencing Shepard, 29, to prison. Shepard, who pleaded guilty to aggravated abuse of a disabled adult, a first-degree felony, and manslaughter, a second-degree felony, was sentenced to consecutive terms of five years to life and one to 15 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Harms, who suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and had the mental capacity of an 8- to 12-year-old, was constantly kept in a small closet where she was forced to eat and go to the bathroom while being bound to a metal bar.

Harms had ligature marks on her ankles consistent with plastic zip ties when officials examined her, severe bruising on her thigh and head, bloodshot eyes, a pepper seed in one of her eyelids, and her hands were completely covered with bandaging material, which would have prevented her from getting the pepper seed out.

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Guardian of Abused Woman Kept in Closet Sent to Prison for Her Death

See Also:
Guardian Accused of Causing Death of Disabled Woman

Head Nurse to Stand Trial in Connection With Woman’s Death at Cameron Park Care Facility

The former head nurse at a Placerville nursing home will stand trial for felony elder abuse in connection with the 2008 death of a 77-year-old Cameron Park woman, an El Dorado County judge ruled Tuesday.

More than 4 1/2 years after the death of Johnnie Esco, Judge Daniel B. Proud found there was sufficient evidence to move forward in the criminal case again Donna Darlene Palmer, 58, a registered nurse.

Palmer, who was then director of nursing at the El Dorado Care Center, was one of two nurses at the facility charged criminally by the California attorney general. The second nurse, 39-year-old Rebecca Smith, negotiated a deal earlier this month with the state.

Smith, a licensed vocational nurse, agreed to plead no contest to felony elder abuse in exchange for a possible suspended jail term and her willingness to help prosecutors in their pursuit of Palmer.

The attorney general contends that both nurses failed to perform their duties or to adequately supervise staff in caring for Esco, who died a painful and unnecessary death – despite a devoted family that surrounded her daily, according to testimony and state documents.

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Head Nurse to Stand Trial in Connection with Woman’s Death at Cameron Park Care Facility

Sacramento County can’t be sued in group home death, court rules

A state appeals court has ruled that Sacramento County cannot be sued over the death of an Oak Park group home employee that allegedly resulted from a conservator’s placement of a paranoid schizophrenic with a 20-year history of violence into the home.The mental patient, Ofiu Edwards Foto, is accused of smashing Pausta Sibarani over the head with a wooden chair and assaulting her husband, Tumbur Purba, who also worked at the home. Sibarani, 65, died and Purba, now 73, was left with permanent brain injuries.

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Sacramento County can’t be sued in group home death, court rules

NY nursing home cited after resident choking death

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) – A choking death has led to changes at a central New York nursing home.

 

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that the Loretto Cunningham skilled nursing facility was cited Oct. 3 by the state health department for a violation that created “immediate jeopardy” of serious injury or death for residents.

 

Neither the nursing home nor the health department would detail how the resident died, including whether it involved eating or drinking.

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NY nursing home cited after resident choking death