Delco hospital shooter sentenced to life
The doctor faced his patient for the first time since last July, when a routine office visit turned into a deadly shootout.
The doctor faced his patient for the first time since last July, when a routine office visit turned into a deadly shootout.
Psychiatrist Lee Silverman said he saw Richard Plotts in some ways as the depressed man he had treated - a man in deep pain.
"Or do I see you as the perpetrator of the most horrible and egregious thing that I have ever witnessed?" Silverman said, standing in a Delaware County courtroom Friday. "You've become a monster who visits me in my nightmares."
Plotts, 50, was sentenced to life in prison Friday for killing caseworker Theresa Hunt and attempting to kill Silverman. Wearing a blue prison jumpsuit, Plotts did not speak, remained expressionless, and slouched in his chair.
The Upper Darby man, with a criminal record and a long history of mental illness, brought a gun to his appointment July 24, 2014, on the campus of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital on the border of Darby and Yeadon Boroughs. Once inside a small medical office with Hunt and Silverman, he pulled out his weapon, shooting Hunt in the head and firing at Silverman.
Silverman was struck in his thumb and forehead; a bullet bounced off his skull, the doctor said Friday. But Silverman also was armed. From his pocket, the psychiatrist retrieved a handgun and fired back at the patient, striking him three times.
A doctor who evaluated Plotts after the shootings found that he suffers from schizoaffective disorder. He was carrying dozens of bullets and had intended to kill Silverman and Hunt, the expert found, but was acting out of paranoia.
Defense attorney Charles Williams asked that Plotts receive treatment in a special mental-health unit in prison.
"I see a history of 20 years of people trying to help this man," he said. "And you see where it has led."
Silverman said he is still haunted by the day he watched Plotts kill Hunt.
"I will never forget the look on your face, half-smile and half-grimace, as you pulled the trigger," he said.
Hunt, 53, was a social worker for Mercy Fitzgerald and worked as Plotts' case manager. Several of her nine siblings attended Friday's sentencing.
"I hope Plotts sees Theresa's face every day for the rest of his life," Hunt's sister Martha Trinca wrote in a statement read by Assistant District Attorney Michael Matson.
This summer, Plotts pleaded guilty but mentally ill to murder, attempted murder, and illegally carrying a firearm. The first-degree murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence. Judge Mary Alice Brennan sentenced him to an additional 10 to 30 years for the other crimes.
Silverman, who had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, still works as a psychiatrist at Mercy Fitzgerald.
The hospital has a no-firearms policy; hospital officials have declined to comment on whether Silverman was disciplined for carrying a gun at work.
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