Heather Pressdee

A $19,743 judgment has been entered against a former nurse who is serving three life sentences for killing residents at area nursing homes.

The county clerk of courts office obtained the judgment, which includes $18,900 in restitution payable to the Attorney General’s office, which prosecuted Pressdee, and $843 in court costs and fees.

Pressdee, 41, of Natrona Heights, was sentenced May 2 to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by 380 to 760 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder filed by the Attorney General’s office. She injected patients with lethal doses of insulin or air embolisms.

The murders and attempted murders happened from 2020 to 2023 while she worked as a registered nurse at five nursing homes in Butler, Allegheny, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties. Her nursing license was revoked during the investigation.

The Attorney General’s office did not attach aggravating circumstances to the murder charges to seek the death penalty because Pressdee accepted responsibility and allowed victims and their families to have closure by pleading guilty, prosecutors said.

She is serving her sentence in the state prison in Muncy, Lycoming County, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Clerk of Court Lisa Lotz said the county will collect the restitution and forward it to the Attorney General’s office.

She said the restitution will come from money people send to Pressdee to use in prison in accordance with state law.

“From state prison, we do get money that people send them while they’re sitting in prison,” Lotz said. “It can be a couple hundred dollars or just a couple dollars.”

The law authorizes the department to deduct money from accounts of state prison inmates to pay their court-ordered restitution, fees, costs, fines and penalties, according to the department.

An initial deduction of 25% of an inmate’s account total is taken from the account after the inmate enters a state prison as long as the account has a balance exceeding $10. Subsequent monthly deductions are 50% of the account balance as long as it contains more than $10.

Lotz said her office receives payments in varying amounts from state inmates twice a month.