Nurse Caught On Video Laughing As Elderly Veteran Died Has Been Charged With Murder

Published February 22, 2018
Updated September 6, 2019

See the video that will now likely put this nurse behind bars.

As 89-year-old World War II veteran James Dempsey lay dying in a Georgia nursing home, his nurses both ignored his cries and laughed as they failed to take critical measures that could have prevented his death.

We know this because the entire incident was caught on a hidden camera placed in the man’s room by his family. Now, that footage has led to indictments for the nurses involved.

According to local NBC affiliate 11Alive, certified nurse assistant Mable Turman faces a charge of neglect to an elder person while former licensed practical nurse (LPN) Wanda Nuckles faces a charge of depriving an elder person of essential services. Finally, former LPN Loyce Pickquet Agyeman faces charges of both neglect and felony murder.

These charges come nearly four years after the 2014 incident in which the nurses ignored Dempsey as he cried out for help, saying that he couldn’t breathe. Eventually, he became unresponsive, at which point the nurses failed to perform CPR immediately and didn’t call 911 until 57 minutes after he became unresponsive, according to 11Alive. In the meantime, Nuckles even started laughing while trying to start up an oxygen machine.

The nursing home wasn’t made aware of the video that captured these events until 2015, and the nurses weren’t fired until an additional ten months after that. Finally, the video only became public after 11Alive got approval from a judge to release it this past November as part of a lawsuit filed by Dempsey’s family.

The lawsuit and the 11Alive investigation then prompted local authorities to re-open the case, leading to the new indictments for the three nurses. Arrest warrants have since been issued for all three as well, although no trial date has yet been set.

At trial, the nurses will obviously have to account for their response. The first time around, during deposition testimony (see above) recorded before the nurses knew that the hidden camera footage existed, Nuckles can be seen lying about her response by indicating that she began performing CPR right away and kept it up continuously until paramedics arrived.

The truth, of course, is that Nuckles did not take action and that James Dempsey soon died as a result.

While Nuckles, during her deposition, was clearly lying about her actions that night, perhaps she was telling the truth when attorneys asked her why she was laughing — doubled over, in fact, onto Dempsey’s deathbed. She said she didn’t remember.


Next, see some of the most haunting photos of people taken just before they died. Then, read about the nurses who were recently fired after being caught on video flipping off newborns and calling them “mini-Satans.”

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All That's Interesting
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A New York-based publisher established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science to share stories that illuminate our world.
editor
John Kuroski
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John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.