Inset: Erin Strotman (Henrico County Jail). Background: Henrico Doctors” Hospital (Google Maps).
A Virginia nurse, found guilty of injuring nine premature infants who experienced “unexplained fractures” in a hospital’s intensive care unit, is set to be released from prison in three years or less.
Erin Strotman, 27, faced accusations of causing limb fractures to at least nine babies at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. Strotman was charged in January 2025 with malicious wounding and felony child abuse related to an incident from November 2024. Further investigation linked her to the injuries of additional infants, as reported by Law&Crime.
According to hospital reports, three infants suffered “unexplained fractures” in November. Similar injuries occurred in four other babies during the summer of 2023, hospital authorities noted.
Video evidence purportedly captured Strotman applying pressure to a 5-month-old baby boy’s legs, bending them until his feet touched his head.
In January, Strotman entered a no contest plea to nine counts of child abuse against nine infants spanning from 2022 to 2024. She was convicted the following month, per court records.
According to court records reviewed by Law&Crime, she was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison — the statutory maximum of five years per child under Virginia law. Pursuant to the plea agreement between Strotman and local prosecutors, local CBS affiliate WTVR reported, she will serve only three years total, as the judge suspended all but four months of each sentence.
Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor told reporters that she negotiated the sentence with Strotman’s defense lawyers in exchange for the pleas. She said that there would be challenges in prosecuting the case due to a lack of video evidence for some of the babies, the hospital’s delay in reporting the abuse, and the Henrico hospital’s care guidelines prior to 2024, which did not track which nurse provided care to which infant.
“It wasn’t my choice that I wanted to actually do three years,” Taylor said, but she explained that she was limited by the state’s sentencing guidelines, “as unimaginable as it is.”
Strotman’s lawyers had reportedly argued that she never intended to harm the children, and that she was using a specific gas-relief technique she learned while at the hospital.
Local NBC affiliate WWBT reported that Strotman spoke to the families at the hearing.
“I would like to sincerely apologize for the accidental harm that was inflicted on the babies,” she reportedly said, adding: “I never intended to hurt your children and I am so sorry.”
Ashli Mason, one of the parents of an injured child, said she was pleased to see Strotman — who had not been in custody since her arrest — be detained immediately after the sentencing hearing.
“I now know that my child’s abuser is behind bars, and will be going behind bars, and I’m happy with that,” Mason said.
In April 2025, the Virginia Department of Health reported that an investigation determined that the hospital “failed to prevent abuse” in connection with Strotman’s care of the babies.
The judge denied Strotman’s lawyers’ request for home confinement, per WTVR. According to the station, her lawyers said she could potentially be released for good behavior after serving 65% of her sentence.