Calling the death of 75-year-old patient Charlene Murphey a "terrible, terrible mistake," a Tennessee judge sentenced former nurse RaDonda Vaught, RN, to 3 years of supervised probation on Friday.
Before sentencing, a tearful Vaught, 38, asked for leniency and apologized for the first time to the Murphey family. "I'm sorry I haven't said this sooner. I'm sorry for what you lost. Your mother, wife, grandmother did not deserve that…I'm sorry you have not heard from me before. I am never, ever forgetting my role in this."
RaDonda Vaught
The sentencing also included statements from family members about the impact on them and Murphey's husband. They said Murphey wouldn't have wanted Vaught to serve prison time but her husband wanted the maximum sentence.
Friday's testimony also centered on a perjury charge against Vaught in 2020 that stemmed from a gun permit she was denied because she failed to report she was under indictment for a felony or any crime that could result in prison time.
In reading her sentencing decision, Judge Jennifer Smith noted that Vaught, a former ICU nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, "will never again be in the position to do this fatal error," as she was stripped of her nursing license.
