Two nurses charged with murder in Plains patient death

<p>A Sumter County grand jury has indicted two nurses for felony murder and cruelty to the elderly in the death of a patient at a Plains nursing home named after the mother of former president Jimmy Carter.</p><p>Cecelia Cooper, district attorney for the Southwestern Judicial Circuit, said the charges stem from the November 2002 death of Johnny Wilborn, 65, at the Lillian Carter Nursing Center.</p><p>Named in the indictment were Linda Hogue, a former licensed practical nurse who lives in Sumter County, and Jean Cape Bodrey of Cordele, a former registered nurse. Both were fired Nov. 14, 2002, for failure to follow company policy, according the company that now manages the nursing home.</p><p>The indictments said the nurses jeopardized Wilborns health by failing to provide adequate care and that their cruelty to an elderly person caused his death.</p><p>George Hunt, vice president of human services for Ethica Health and Retirement Communities, headquartered in Macon, which acquired the nursing home through a recent merger, said he was unfamiliar with the case.</p><p>But he released a fax Tuesday that contained a few more details.</p><p>According to the document, Bodrey was the nursing supervisor on the 3-11 p.m. shift and Hogue was a nurse on the same shift, primarily responsible for dispensing medications and supervising nursing assistants that provided direct care to the residents.</p>