A jury yesterday convicted former nursing home administrator Martha F. Bell and the facility she operated on all of the charges they faced in the death of former resident Mabel Taylor.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Martha F. Bell

After hearing testimony for more than four weeks, the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court jury found Mrs. Bell and the nursing home guilty of neglect of a care-dependent person, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

The jury of six women and six men, which deliberated for about eight hours over two days, also found Mrs. Bell guilty of conspiring to cover up the circumstances of Mrs. Taylor's death at the former Ronald Reagan Atrium I Nursing, Research and Rehabilitation Center.

Touted as a national model for care of people afflicted with Alzheimer's disease when Mrs. Bell opened it in 1995, Atrium was closed by the state in 2004 after numerous financial and regulatory problems.

Judge David Cashman scheduled sentencing for Monday and allowed Mrs. Bell, 60, of West Mifflin, to remain free on bond. She could face up to 14 ¹/₂ to 29 years in prison and fines of up to $45,000. Atrium could also be fined.

Yesterday's verdicts came more than five years after Mrs. Taylor, 88, was found dead on Oct. 26, 2001, after she was trapped overnight in a locked outdoor courtyard at the nursing home in Robinson. An autopsy determined that exposure to cold triggered a fatal arrhythmia in her diseased heart.

Investigators later learned that Atrium employees tried to deceive Mrs. Taylor's family by dragging her body indoors, washing and placing her body in bed and telling her daughter that she'd died peacefully in her sleep.

Mrs. Bell showed no emotion when the verdicts were read. As she left the courtroom, she said, "I have faith in God that justice will be done one day," but declined further comment.

Her attorney John Elash, however, said he believed Mrs. Bell was unfairly prosecuted for what should have been a civil malpractice case. "I think they should indict every hospital administrator," he said, echoing arguments during the trial that top officials of local hospitals and other nursing homes have not been prosecuted for errors that contributed to patient deaths.

Atrium attorney W. Christopher Conrad predicted that the verdicts could discourage health care professionals from working at nursing homes or caring for a particularly difficult population of patients with dementia.

But Assistant District Attorney Thomas Merrick and Mrs. Taylor's daughter, Jane Baczewski, 60, of Hopewell, said they were gratified by the jury's attention and conclusions in an unusually long and detailed case.

"It's about having the system work and the right object obtained," said Mr. Merrick, who prosecuted the case in which a rare felony neglect charge was filed for the first time by the district attorney's office.

The 12-year-old statute is intended for cases in which an individual or institution harmed a helpless person not only by action but by inaction. It is not frequently applied because of difficulty in proving cases in which victims may be frail, elderly and incompetent to testify.

More than 50 witnesses testified during the trial, including relatives of other former residents who told of injuries, delayed care, medication errors and inadequate staffing in the years before Mrs. Taylor's death. Former employees also testified about inadequate staffing.

Mr. Merrick also presented evidence that, in addition to her Atrium salary, she drew between $145,000 and $156,000 in a second salary each year from 1999 to 2001 from a related nonprofit corporation that received money from Atrium.

The investigation of Mrs. Taylor's death by county police and the former county coroner's office later expanded, drawing in federal agents who examined additional problems at Atrium.

In October, U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry sentenced Mrs. Bell to serve five years in prison and pay $50,000 in fines following her conviction on one count of health care fraud and eight counts of making false statements on health care matters.

He also ordered Atrium, which was convicted of one count of fraud and 10 counts of making false statements, to pay $490,000 in fines. Mrs. Bell has not begun to serve that sentence because of her trial in Common Pleas Court. She also faces a charge of theft of payroll funds from Atrium; that trial was to begin after the end of the trial in Mrs. Taylor's death, but prosecution and defense attorneys yesterday were unsure when that would occur.