Nurse who killed 29 patients, including priest, gets life sentences

Published: 2006-03-21

SOMERVILLE, N.J. (CNS) -- A nurse who pleaded guilty to murdering 29 patients, including Father Florian J. Gall, received 11 consecutive life sentences from Superior Court Judge Paul W. Armstrong in Somerville March 2. Wayne J. Forrest, Somerset County prosecutor, told The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, that Charles Cullen was sentenced to two life sentences for the 13 patients he murdered in Somerset Medical Center in Somerville; five life sentences for five victims in Hunterdon Medical Center in Raritan Township; three life sentences for his victims in Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg; and one life sentence for a patient he murdered in St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. Father Gall, who had served nearly 20 years at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Whitehouse Station, died June 28, 2003, at Somerset Medical Center. Cullen, a native of West Orange, admitted that he intentionally administered lethal doses of the heart medication digoxin to the 68-year-old priest.

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