Former Henrico nurse who abused NICU babies will likely see no more than 3-year sentence
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HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Erin Strotman, the Henrico County nurse who abused nine premature babies over multiple years, will likely be sentenced to no more than three years in prison, per the terms of her plea agreement.
Several babies within Henrico Doctors’ Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) were found to have "unexplainable fractures" between 2022 and 2024. Ultimately, investigators identified nine babies with a variety of injuries -- including one that had all of his limbs broken.
Documents from the Virginia Board of Nursing contain detailed descriptions of the abuse that 27-year-old Strotman inflicted on infants in the NICU. This includes Strotman putting heavy pressure on babies’ legs and abdomens, squeezing them with “excessive force,” moving them around carelessly and lifting them while only holding their head.
One of Strotman's victims weighed only 11 ounces at birth, the board said.
“I feel like it, it can be perceived as a little too rough,” Strotman said of conduct that was caught on camera, according to the Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney's Office. “How, like on the video, it looks like I [leaned] my weight into him. Okay. With his history and the prematurity, sort of — but in the moment, it didn’t feel too rough. A little? Yeah. After seeing the video? Yeah.”
Strotman originally faced a total of 20 criminal charges relating to the treatment of these nine premature babies. In the end, through reaching a plea agreement, she was found guilty of only nine charges of felony child abuse.
8News received a copy of that plea agreement, which outlines the terms that the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office and Strotman's defense team agreed on in exchange for her "no contest" pleas.
The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has agreed to seek more than a 3-year active sentence for Strotman, adding that the guidelines for her felony child abuse charges "call for a period of incarceration between one day and six months."
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Strotman will surrender her nursing license, which was originally suspended by the Virginia Board of Nursing in May 2025. She has also agreed to no longer provide services as a health care professional, a health care provider or a caregiver for a child or a "vulnerable adult."
Finally, Strotman is not to have unsupervised contact with anyone less than 18 years old who is not related to her until the end of her sentence.
All of the families of babies involved in this case were reportedly asked for their opinions on this plea agreement before it was made official.
“I have always made it a priority to ensure that we would be able to ask the Court to hold Erin Strotman accountable for all of the families being impacted," said Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor in a press release. "We made a promise to these families that we would continue to work on this matter and I intended for us to keep that promise."
The judge who presides over Strotman's sentencing, which is scheduled for June 5, will have the final say on the length and nature of her sentence. Taylor said that, during this hearing, she hopes that all nine families will be able to testify as to how Strotman's abuse impacted them.
For all of our coverage on this disturbing case, click here.
