Angela Judd (Photo: (Deschutes County Sheriff's Office)

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 21 in the case of an Oregon woman accused of killing her grandmother in a retirement community.

Angela Judd was arraigned Feb. 16 on charges of murder, first-degree theft and two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment in the New Year’s Eve death of her 92-year-old grandmother, Nada Bodholdt, after allegedly confessing to a counselor that she smothered her with a pillow in her room at Stone Lodge, a Holiday Retirement community in Bend, OR. Judd reportedly was participating in counseling sessions as part of the employee assistance program offered by her employer, Sky Lakes Medical Center, Klamath Falls, OR. She worked there as a registered nurse.

“Nada Bodholdt’s death was a tragedy and was unnecessary,” Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said in a statement.

Bodholdt originally was thought to have died from natural causes; Judd said her grandmother had congestive heart failure and was receiving hospice care. According to a “memorandum of law in support of admissibility of defendant’s admissions” filed in the case, however, Judd also told the counselor that she was exhausted from providing care and felt financially burdened from paying a private caregiver $25 per hour.

Via the memorandum, Hummel is asking the court to allow Judd’s statements to the counselor at a preliminary hearing and trial, because Judd was aware that the counselor was required by law to report elder abuse to authorities.

A representative of Holiday Retirement told McKnight’s Senior Living that the company was cooperating with authorities and had no other comment on the case. Tom Hottman, public information officer for Sky Lakes Medical Center, told McKnight’s Senior Living that Judd’s employment was terminated Feb. 15. She had started with the organization as a traveling nurse and most recently worked for the surgery department, he said.