Ex-nurse gets 397 yrs in prison for killing 29

As over 20 people stepped to the microphone, many choking back sobs or vibrating with anger, Cullen simply stared at the rug. “Look at me, Charles!” snapped Debra Yetter Medina, granddaughter of one of Cullen’s ailing, elderly victims. He did not. Instead, he looked bored.

Medina then read out loud a dictionary definition of “vermin.” “That’s you, a small, objectionable animal,” she said. “And guess what? There ain’t no doors out of hell, baby.”

Prosecutors acknowledged that four centuries of prison time were redundant but they seemed to be responding to the three-hour outpouring of grief that filled the courtroom in Somerville.