Similarities abound in a pair of unrelated court cases that recently found that the actions of two Lancaster County medical professionals resulted in the deaths of two children.

But the final outcome of each case will be vastly different.

Connor Carter, 14, and Brent Weaver, 11, were pronounced dead six years apart in the early morning at Lancaster General Hospital, hours after unprescribed drugs had been administered to them in their East Hempfield Township homes.

Dr. William A. Carter, 59, has been sentenced to 100 hours community service for causing the death of his son by accidental drug overdose. Prosecutors say the physician was a good person and at no time wanted to harm his child.

Jurors said the same thing about licensed practical nurse Joy O'Shea-Woomer, 50, who could face years in prison for causing the unintentional death of Brent Weaver, a cerebral palsy patient she cared for Sept. 27, 2002.

Woomer, who maintains her innocence going into her sentencing hearing Wednesday, was convicted Jan. 14 of giving a lethal dose of morphine on the only night she cared for the boy. Prosecutors have surmised that Woomer obtained morphine prescribed for another patient in her care.

Carter admitted to accidentally giving a lethal dose of narcotics to his son when he applied a pain-killing fentanyl patch Dec. 17, 2008, that had been intended and prescribed for another patient. Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said Carter had given the drug to ease Connor's pain while recovering from knee surgery.

Fentanyl is an opiate narcotic, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Web site. The penalty for delivering fentanyl is not less than five years and not more than 40 years. There is a minimum sentence of not less than 20 years if death or serious injury occurs from its use, according to DEA.

In an interesting twist, a Boulder Colo., newspaper reported that a former nurse this month was sentenced to 4 ½ years in federal prison for stealing drugs, including fentanyl, a painkiller up to 100 times stronger than morphine, from syringes left over from surgeries.

Jurors in the Woomer case concluded she did not intentionally kill Brent, despite the prosecution's unambiguous avowal that the visiting nurse expected Brent's life to end that morning in "rapid death."

Though a juror admitted that Woomer's motives were not evil — "All of us believed that Joy O'Shea Woomer is a good person who made a bad mistake" — the jury convicted her on the three charges filed by prosecutors.

Police charged Woomer in October 2008 with criminal homicide — a "catch-all" charge often applied by prosecutors in Lancaster County that could result in a first- or third-degree murder or manslaughter conviction.

While prosecutors clearly sought a first-degree murder conviction, jurors found Woomer guilty of third-degree murder, drug delivery resulting in death, and delivery of a controlled substance. Though she could face more than 50 years in prison, Woomer's attorney Chris Patterson said that the murder and drug delivery charges must be merged because under the law each is considered a third-degree murder conviction.

According to his plea agreement, Carter consented to give up his license to dispense narcotics and surrender his license to practice medicine. Judge Joseph Madenspacher ruled that his conviction could be cleared if Carter completes the requirements of the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program: perform 100 hours of community service and talk to other medical professionals about the legal requirements of handling prescription drugs.

Stedman said that the Woomer and Carter cases are very different and "cannot be fairly compared under the law beyond a superficial level." He said that his office must weigh the facts of each case, victim and defendant individually.

"When that is done, it is clear that these cases are quite simply very different and it would be irresponsible to charge people with the same crime and seek the same sentence for each case on the sole basis of superficial similarities," Stedman wrote in an e-mail March 12.

Stedman stressed that Carter took responsibility for his actions. He said that because Carter's case involved his son, he has and "will no doubt continue to suffer a far more serious personal punishment" regardless of what the justice system would do.

"We have crafted an outcome which allows for some good to come from this tragedy through his community service and education of other medical professionals ... Dr. Carter will never handle controlled substances again," Stedman said.

Still, Woomer's supporters, who've launched "Justice for Joy" to bring awareness to the case, say the two cases illustrate a bias in the Lancaster County justice system.

"There's no way Joy did it," said a member of the group who asked not to be identified.

"But beyond that, the results in both cases are the same, except the doctor gets a slap on the wrist because he's licensed to prescribe drugs and a nurse gets slammed because she is not."

Meet monthly
About 30 to 40 members of Justice for Joy meet each month at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church to discuss how to support Woomer's appeal following her sentencing before Judge David Ashworth.

Many, including Carol Taylor, were among 50 character witnesses listed before Ashcroft the day before a jury found Woomer guilty Jan. 14.

"I'm amazed at all the people who care — patients, teachers, nurses, clergy, doctors — who support Joy," Taylor said. "We had three people show up recently who don't even know Joy. They felt that [her conviction] was unjust and wanted to do something."

Taylor says the group still struggles to grasp how jurors returned a third-degree murder conviction against Woomer because there was no direct evidence or clear motive linking her to Weaver's death.

"It's very hard," she said. "Anyone who watched the trial was sure she would be acquitted. Joy's family had postponed celebrating Christmas until after the verdict so Joy could be there."

Woomer, who had been director of programming at Holy Spirit, was denied bail before her trial and has been in Lancaster County Prison since October 2008.

"All who know Joy remain behind her 100 percent," Judy Cauler said.

Justice for Joy has taken a measured approach in crafting its message of support for Woomer, members said. It has created a Facebook page, written letters to the media and created a Web site, justiceforjoy.org, which has received more than 8,200 hits in less than two months.

"We have to do whatever it takes to keep Joy's story fresh in everyone's minds," Noelle Van Laeys Dandridge said.

The group is selling wristbands to bring awareness to the case and to raise money for Woomer's appeal, which they believe is warranted.

"I think some of the jurors already had their minds made up before the trial," Van Laeys Dandridge said.

The majority of Justice for Joy supporters contacted, including Woomer's relatives, said they will not comment until Ashworth issues his sentence.

"We agreed that we do not want to antagonize anyone in the legal system before sentencing," Taylor said. "But, I would hope that the judicial system here is above that."

Still, many in the group privately say prosecutors overzealously pursued Woomer. They point to a "piling on" of charges that kept her in jail for more than 15 months before her trial and say the disparity in justice is obvious in comparing her case with Carter's.

Stedman dismissed such accusations and stressed that Woomer took a trial and that the jury convicted on the more serious charge of murder for "actually causing the death of her patient, who was not her son, with malice and the use of unprescribed morphine."

"Unlike Dr. Carter, her act was not motivated by a desire to lessen any pain," Stedman said.

"She has failed to accept responsibility for her acts and certainly will never suffer the personal loss that Dr. Carter has. Instead, the surviving victims are the parents and family ... who have no real relationship with Woomer other than she is the person who has been convicted of murdering their loved one."