Respiratory therapist pleads guilty in deaths of 2 patients

CHILLICOTHE, Mo. (AP) — A former respiratory therapist has pleaded guilty in the deaths of two patients at a Missouri hospital two decades ago. Forty-two-year-old Jennifer Hall initially was charged with two counts of first-degree murder but pleaded guilty instead Friday to first-degree involuntary manslaughter counts in the deaths of 75-year-old Fern Franco and 37-year-old David Wesley Harper. The Kansas City Star reports that she also pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree assault. Franco and Harper were among nine patients who died at Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe over several months in 2002 in what charging documents describe as “medically suspicious” events.