THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410300059
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
William S. Seagle Jr. gave 21-year-old Amy L. Gerstein the first hit of heroin on the back of her hand. When she asked for another, he shot her up in the arm, then took a hit himself, witnesses said.
She wanted a third, so she unlaced her tennis shoe and he shot her up in the foot.
Hours later, Gerstein was found dead on the floor of the Econo Lodge in the 2200 block of S. Military Highway, where the two drug addicts had gone to share the heroin Seagle had bought after cashing his unemployment check.
The way witnesses told it, this was a ritual of friendship, an act of bonding. Just two friends sharing a high on Jan. 27.
But in the eyes of a jury, it was something else: murder.
A Circuit Court jury on Tuesday convicted Seagle of second-degree murder and recommended that he spend 28 years in prison on murder and drug charges. In essence, they decided he had committed murder by heroin overdose, even though Seagle had maintained the death was accidental.
Seagle, 37, was convicted under the ``felony murder'' statute, rarely used in drug overdose cases. It holds that if someone accidentally dies while another person commits a felony, that death is considered a murder.
In the case of illegal drugs, a supplier can be charged with murder if prosecutors can prove that the drugs he supplied caused death by overdose.
``The person who is distributing drugs does not have to actually
administer the drugs,'' said Mary Anne Razim-Fitzsimons, an assistant commonwealth's attorney who prosecuted the case.
However, ``the death . . . has to be related very closely to the time and place of the felony,'' she said. ``It has to be a direct consequence of the felony.
``But if we don't have that definite link, it's a hard one to prosecute.''
Such murder prosecutions, however, are not unprecedented. Perhaps the most famous case involved actor-comedian John Belushi, who died of a drug overdose in March 1982. His companion, Cathy Evelyn Smith, boasted that she had injected him with a ``speedball'' - a mixture of heroin and cocaine - that killed him. Smith pleaded no-contest to involuntary manslaughter and three drug charges in a plea agreement with prosecutors. She was sentenced to three years.
Hampton Roads prosecutors can't recall the last time they have tried such a case. In fact, there are records of fewer than six such cases in Virginia.
``First of all, you've got to have a death that's drug related,'' said Will H. Jamerson, chief assistant commonwealth's attorney in Portsmouth. ``And it's highly unlikely that at that time of death, there's going to be credible witnesses on the scene. And then the question arises, would they even come forward to testify if they were (also) using drugs?''
Another pitfall in prosecuting such a case is that it is difficult to determine which distributor provided the lethal drugs if several distributors were supplying an addict.
Before Seagle's case, the most recent Virginia case was heard last October by the Virginia Court of Appeals, records show. A Woodbridge woman lost an appeal after being sentenced to 30 years in prison. She had been convicted of second-degree murder and cocaine distribution following the death of a Stafford man who injected himself with cocaine he bought from her.
Now, Seagle awaits his fate in the city jail. His sentencing is set for Dec. 13.
``There's a lot more to that story in that motel room than what you know,'' Seagle said after his conviction. ``I ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. . . . I was asleep when this happened.''
``I tried to be good to people,'' he said. ``I wish I could live it over.''
Witnesses testified during the two-day trial that Gerstein and Seagle hadn't been friends for long. They met at Serenity Lodge, a residential drug treatment center for adults that is located in Chesapeake. Both had a history of drug abuse, but they were kicked out after they were caught smuggling beer into the center.
They rented a motel room with two friends, Pamela Purdy and Jeff Bernier, and cashed Seagle's unemployment check to buy heroin.
Bernier testified that he watched Gerstein sit on the toilet as Seagle positioned himself on the side of the bathtub. Bernier stood an arm's-length away and watched as the pair used a cigarette lighter to melt the white heroin powder in a small spoon.
Seagle used a syringe to inject Gerstein in the back of her left hand.
``(Bill) waited a second, and then she said `You missed,' '' Bernier testified.
Seagle injected her again, but this time on her left arm.
``Amy said, `You missed again,' '' Bernier said.
And as Seagle injected himself with the same syringe of heroin, Gerstein took off her tennis shoe and asked for an injection in her foot.
``When he pulled it out, there were a couple drops of blood,'' Bernier said. ``I felt kind of weird. I felt kind of squeamish.''
Hours later, she died, while Seagle, in a drug-induced stupor, watched.
``I just can't believe she asked anybody to inject her three times, either in the hand, or the foot or anywhere,'' Kay Gerstein, Amy's mother, said in an interview after the trial.
``In my heart, I don't think some of it was true,'' she said.
``Amy was a loving person . . . and she'd give you the shirt off her back,'' Gerstein said. ``She just had a lot of problems.''
``She was sick,'' she said. ``She did want help, but she didn't get the help she needed.''
``Now she's dead.''
KEYWORDS: MURDER DRUG OVERDOSE HEROIN TRIAL
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