A former nursing home caregiver stood quietly Friday in Douglas County District Court as she pleaded no contest to stealing morphine from patients.

Erica A. Bay, 29, appeared before District Judge Paula Martin to answer to two counts of mistreatment of a dependent adult, a misdemeanor. Bay will be sentenced at 10:30 a.m. May 10.

Bay was arrested in July after police accused her of stealing morphine patches off residents at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community, 4851 Harvard Road.

The prosecution said Bay had admitted to taking several patches in multiple incidents and pouring the morphine into her hand and then into her mouth.

The victims were a 79-year-old woman and a 96-year-old man, police said. The incidents occurred in January 2005. The 96-year-old man died shortly afterward, but a nursing home manager said at the time it was unrelated to the alleged thefts. The manager, Lee Eaton, also said the suspect had worked at the home less than six months and that “no resident experienced any pain or experienced any adverse affects.”

The patches, about the size of two Band-Aids, were covered with medical tape to keep them in place on a patient’s skin.

Erica A. Bay, former caretaker at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community in Lawrence, pleads guilty Friday morning in Douglas County District Court to two counts of mistreatment of an adult in connection with a theft of morphine discovered at the nursing home last year. Judge Paula Martin scheduled Bay's sentencing date for May 10 in Douglas County District Court.

Lee Eaton, a regional manager for Midwest Health Services, said nurses first discovered problems when they noticed that the tape looked curled. When they peeled off the tape, they found cut edges on the morphine patches, which allowed access to the drug.

Eaton called the crime bizarre.

“You’re not sure what’s going through someone’s head when they’re trying to do that,” he said. “It’s something I’ve never heard of before.”

Eaton said the facility’s staff now checks pain patches more often to make sure they haven’t been tampered with.

He said he was happy to see justice served.

“It’s always upsetting, particularly in the business that we’re in, when someone takes advantage of the elderly,” he said. “I hope I never see it again.”