Nurse for the dying suggests that Rutherford County Courts abused their discretion in her sentencing

Aug 01, 2017 at 07:32 pm by bryan


An appeal was filed by a woman who was sentenced to serve ten years behind bars after she was arrested and later convicted in Rutherford County. The defendant, who cared for sick and dying patients in Middle Tennessee, suggested that the trial court abused its discretion in ordering her to serve ten years in confinement as opposed to allowing for alternative sentencing.

36 Year old Deann Anelia Walls, who was indicted and later plead guilty to nineteen counts of prescription fraud and one count of identity theft, received the sentence of ten years in prison while appearing before Judge Royce Taylor.

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During the sentence hearing, a woman told the courts that Walls was a nurse who cared for her elderly mother who had multiple sclerosis. During the day, the Smyrna, TN patient was supposed to be taking one to two oxycodone pills every two hours. It was later discovered that she was taking the wrong pills, due to a switch made by someone who worked with her.

The health of the disabled woman took a downhill turn, which is when her daughter took over. Evidently, the daughter noticed that the pills didn't look like Oxycodone pills, so she took a trip to the pharmacy.

A pharmacist told the daughter that the pills were not oxycodone, but instead a medication used to treat seizures and depression. The daughter also learned that her mother was taking the depression pills up to four times every two hours. However, the normal dosage is only one half of a pill twice daily.

Meanwhile, the clinic that managed the disabled woman's Oxycodone noted that her prescription was frequently filled. Pharmacist flagged the woman's account suggesting that she was abusing her pain medication, which led to an investigation and the complete cutoff of her pain treatment for a full month. During that time it was confirmed by Detective Kevin Krieb with the Smyrna Police Department that 6,000 Oxycodone pills had been dispensed to the victim within a ten month period. However, the victim can't drive so it left police asking who filled the prescriptions.

The investigation led to Deann Walls who worked for a private medical firm that once had a contract with the disabled woman in Smyrna and others.

Some of the patients that Walls was caring for were actually in their final stages of life. It was learned that those patients had fraudulent prescriptions filled for Lortab and Soma and allegedly picked up by Walls.

In February of 2014, Walls was evidently caught at a Woodbury, TN pharmacy trying to fill medication in a patients name. Officers met with Walls in the parking lot of the pharmacy where she acknowledged to taking Oxycodone from the disabled Smyrna woman and switched the pills out with folic acid. She also acknowledged that she would sometimes retrieve the victim's medication, but never delivered it to her.

During the original sentencing hearing, Detective Krieb stated that the defendants actions amounted to a "Horrible misuse of the medical profession," and then suggested that she was caring for patients who were in great pain and were dying.

On Monday (7/31/17), the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee denied Walls case from moving forward in her appeal in an attempt to receive less time behind bars. That of course means that Walls will remain in prison the entire length of her ten year sentence. Walls will be 43 years old when her sentence officially ends in 2025.

Source:

No. M2016-01121-CCA-R3-CD

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