A Youngsville nurse is behind bars in the wake of sentencing after giving morphine to a patient without authorization and altering labels to cover her conduct.

Savannah L. Martin, 30, was sentenced Friday by President Judge Maureen Skerda.

The state Attorney General’s office brought the charges.

An employee at Cambridge, where Martin was employed as a licensed practical nurse, told investigators that Martin had been “mislabeling and reissuing controlled substances,” according to the affidavit of probable cause.

The agent interviewed other employees at Cambridge, who said Martin had told them a patient had been prescribed morphine, that she had a verbal order from the doctor, had shown them how much to administer, and instructed them to administer the medication to the patient, according to the affidavit.

The medication was provided to the patient approximately nine times between Nov. 28 and Nov. 30.

Employees told investigators that the medication was given from a bottle with the patient’s name hand-written on it and the name of another patient — who had been prescribed Roxanol and later died — scratched out, according to the affidavit.

Investigators interviewed Martin in September. She told them she had been terminated from her employment at Cambridge in December.

She told investigators that, when she told the doctor that the patient had taken a turn for the worse and that hospice was not available for three days, the doctor told her to “go ahead and start administering the Roxanol” from the deceased patient.

Martin told investigators she had the order for the Roxanol prescription at home, according to the affidavit.

“I would do it again,” she said, according to the affidavit. “I don’t care. I didn’t wrongfully medicate somebody. Was it originally prescribed to (the patient)? No. Was it the same medication? Absolutely. Did I hinder (the patient’s) health? No. But I wasn’t going to let (the patient) suffer and I would do it all over again.”

Martin’s attorney, Matthew Parson, said the court had a range from probation to state prison.

He acknowledged that his client was a nurse and has “lost this now.

“(She) probably cared too much about someone suffering at the end of life,” he said, acknowledging that “doesn’t make it right. It wasn’t out of malice. All the things she put into her life is gone.

“She felt stuck. It didn’t make it right through.”

Deputy Attorney General Roger Bauer called the matter “troubling.”

Martin “probably didn’t want to harm” the individuals but also didn’t contact a doctor or hospice “and those options were available,” he added. “I can’t prove any harm occurred. That risk did exist.”

Martin claimed she contacted the people she needed to contact.

“At that point I didn’t know what else to do,” she said, noting that she cared for the victim for years. “I just hope I can get my life back together.”

Skerda said she appreciated that Martin could see the harm she has done to herself but “not once do I see a word of remorse” in a letter Martin sent to her.

“I know what you did you felt was right,” she said, but suggested it “created a circumstance” where the public might not feel people are safe in that facility.

“You don’t have the right to make that decision,” Skerda added, noting that the crime warrants incarceration.

Martin was sentenced to eight to 16 months in the county jail, two years probation, $2,350 in fines and fees, 100 hours of community service, submission of a DNA sample and to undergo a mental health evaluation and comply with recommendations on a count of possession with intent to deliver as well as an additional three to six months incarceration and two years probation on a count of endangering the welfare of a care-dependent person.