Murderous nurse's death toll at 16
Three more guilty pleas
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former nurse Charles Cullen, who claims to have killed more than three dozen of his patients, has now been convicted of 16 murders.
Cullen pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of first degree murder, according to Warren County prosecutor Thomas Ferguson.
The charges involved the 1983 deaths of Helen Dean, 91; Lucy Mugavero, 90; and Mary Natoli, 85. All three were patients at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where Cullen worked.
Cullen, 44, is accused of murdering patients at 10 hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania over his nearly two-decade long nursing career.
Last month he pleaded guilty to 13 murders and two attempted murders at a court hearing in Somerset County, New Jersey.
According to a plea agreement signed by prosecutors in Pennsylvania and New Jersey on April 29, Cullen will not face the death penalty. Instead, he will serve consecutive life terms, Ferguson said.
For his crimes in New Jersey alone, he is expected to receive 13 life sentences and two 20-year sentences.
Cullen has been ordered to continue cooperating with investigators looking into suspicious patient deaths at all the hospitals where he has worked.
Cullen received his degree as a registered nurse in 1987, but also had contact with patients during nursing school, which he started in 1984.
Cullen was initially charged with murder in the death of a Catholic priest who entered Somerset Medical Center for treatment of heart disease. The priest was found to have lethal levels in his system of the drug digoxin, a heart medication.
The original attempted murder charge involved a female patient who had cancer and heart disease. She recovered from an overdose of the same drug that killed the priest, Somerset County prosecutor Wayne Forrest said last month.
Before Dean died, she claimed Cullen had stuck her with a needle, according to First Assistant Warren County Prosecutor Frank Bucsi.
Cullen was fired from Somerset Medical Center after an investigation of six patients with abnormal lab results showed him as the only common denominator.
Cullen has told investigators he killed as many as 40 patients.
CNN producer Chris Strathmann contributed to this report.
