From the archives: Swango sentenced to fourth life term

This story was originally published in Newsday on October 19, 2000

Michael Swango, the former doctor at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport who already has been sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment for killing patients there, was sentenced to a fourth life sentence yesterday in Ohio after he admitted he murdered a teenager under his care there 16 years ago.

Swango already had admitted killing Cynthia McGee, then 19, by injecting her with a fatal dose of potassium, as part of a plea bargain in U.S. District Court in Uniondale last month.

But under federal law the only charge Swango faced in the McGee case was fraud for denying that he had ever been under investigation for previous crimes when he was interviewed for the Northport job.

Although Swango already is serving the sentences of life without parole for the three Long Island murders, the purpose of the murder plea in County Court in Columbus, Ohio, was to "provide closure" for McGee's family and the legal system, according to Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien.

Following a brief hearing during which Swango essentially reiterated the admissions he had made in federal court, Swango was sentenced to the life term to be served at the federal maximum security prison in Florence, Colo., where he is imprisoned for the three other murders, O'Brien said.

Randi Chavis, one of Swango's attorneys, declined to comment.