A 62-year-old former intensive care unit nurse in Colorado will spend more than two decades behind bars for filming himself sexually assaulting more than a dozen unconscious patients, recordings he referred to as his “Dexter Collection,” a nod to the television serial killer.
District Court Judge Gretchen B. Larson on Friday ordered Christopher P. Lambros to serve a sentence of 20 years in a state correctional facility for his revolting crimes, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Lambros pleaded guilty to six separate counts of felony attempted sexual assault. Larson then sentenced him to three years and eight months on each count. The sentences are to be served consecutively, meaning one after the other, resulting in an effective sentence of 22 years. Following his release from prison, Lambros will be required to serve an additional two years on parole. He was credited with 410 days of time served since his initial arrest.
Before handing down the sentence, Larson said she had only recently discovered that some of Lambros’ victims died while in the ICU, according to a report from Colorado Public Radio.
Christopher P. Lambros (Mesa County Sheriff’s Department)
“This was the first I learned that some of the victims died,” she reportedly said. “The idea of these women being molested as they took their last breath is haunting to the court.”
A mother of one of the victims identified through the scores of photos and videos Lambros kept also spoke, reportedly telling the court her daughter died before leaving the hospital.
Prosecutors applauded the outcome.
“We’re very pleased with the outcome primarily because all of the victim families are pleased with it,” Mesa County District Attorney said in a statement following the proceedings, Grand Junction, Colorado CBS affiliate KREX reported. “Of the people we were able to identify, which was five different victims, only two of them are still alive. We were able to contact the family members of the deceased victims and make sure they were comfortable with this outcome as well.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, the investigation into Lambros began when a colleague called 911 at about 8:45 p.m. on July 9 to report an employee at St. Mary’s Hospital on North 7th Street had witnessed Lambros “taking photos of a patient’s genitals” that evening.
Police say the colleague who allegedly witnessed Lambros’ conduct told the investigator she had gone to the intensive care unit to check on a patient and noticed the lights were off and the curtain was drawn.
“When she pulled back the curtain, she saw the patient, who was unconscious, with her gown pulled up, exposing her breasts, and the bed sheet was pulled down, exposing the patient’s genitals,” the affidavit states. “[The witness] said she saw a nurse, who she knew as Chris Lambros, with his head on the patient’s stomach, with his face toward the patient’s feet, with what she believed [was] his right arm extended, holding what she was sure was an unknown make/model cell phone in a black case, in a position as if he was taking a ‘selfie’ picture.”
She stated that when Lambros saw her, he dropped his phone on the patient’s bed and covered her back up with the gown before leaving. The witness then reported the encounter to her supervisor.
When investigators asked Lambros about the incident, he allegedly claimed he was giving the patient “an injection of blood clots,” denied having taken any photos and said he’d had “petty workplace issues” with the colleague who claimed to have caught him.
The officer then seized Lambros’ phone, stating there was probable cause that he’d committed the crime of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification, according to the affidavit. While Lambros initially refused to provide investigators with the pin to unlock the phone, investigators accessed it after obtaining a search warrant.
Forensic analysis of the phone allegedly revealed “photographs and videos of Lambros posing with a number of victims who were unconscious, in the hospital setting” as well as Lambros “photographing himself sucking on victims’ breasts and digitally penetrating victims,” the affidavit states. The data also allegedly showed that 168 photos and videos had been deleted from the device between April 30 and July 9.
According to investigators, Lambros filmed two videos on April 30 showing him “sucking on the breast of an unknown female.”
In another video from June, Lambros appears to reference the fictional serial killer Dexter Morgan, who kept a collection of blood slides from each of his victims as trophies.
“In video recovered from 6/24/2022 at 17:30 hours, Lambros can be heard whispering to the camera saying, ‘don’t ever get rid of these videos’ and ‘you need to keep them forever… this is your Dexter collection,’” the affidavit states.
Videos from June 25 and July 9, the day his colleague reported him, also allegedly showed Lambros sucking on the breasts of unconscious patients.
St. Mary’s Hospital released a statement saying Lambros was terminated after his arrest.
“What this former nurse is accused of is reprehensible and goes against everything we believe and value at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Patients put their trust in us and should feel safe in our care. We are working closely with law enforcement to protect our patients from those who intend to cause harm. We are doing everything possible to ensure our patients continue to feel safe and respected while receiving care at St. Mary’s Medical Center,” said Bryan Johnson, President of St. Mary’s Medical Center.
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