A federal judge in New Hampshire has dismissed a request to vacate the 39-year prison sentence for a traveling medical technician who infected patients in multiple states with hepatitis C through tainted syringes.
The judge agreed with prosecutors Wednesday that David Kwiatkowski waited too long to ask. Kwiatkowski was sentenced in 2013 for stealing syringes filled with painkillers and replacing them with saline-filled ones tainted with his blood.
In January, he asked to be released, saying his former lawyer was ineffective.
Forty-six people in four states were diagnosed with the same strain of the hepatitis C virus he carries, including a woman who died.
