Pubdate: Wed, 03 Aug 2005 Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI) Copyright: 2005 Madison Newspapers, Inc. Contact: http://www.madison.com/wsj/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/506 Author: Lisa Schuetz, Wisconsin State Journal staff Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) CHARGES FILED AGAINST FOUR IN HEROIN DEATH The three young people partying with Sarah Stellner the night she died may have thought they were having fun. But they and an accused heroin dealer now stand accused of being a party to first-degree reckless homicide as a result of their actions that night. Stellner, 20, was found dead on April 26 in her apartment at 211 Langdon St. Tests indicate she died as a result of using heroin. Stellner's roommate and best friend, Morgan Fenick, 18, admitted to police that she injected Stellner with the drug. Ryan Leo Daley, 23, of Caledonia, Minn., allegedly purchased the heroin and Samuel Katz, 26, of Madison, was with him. Lavinia M. Mull, 25, of Madison, also faces three charges of delivering heroin - each with added penalties for selling within 1,000 feet of a park - as well as two charges of felony bail jumping. Fenick, Daley and Katz all face up to 40 years in prison. Mull faces more than 100 years in prison. The events surrounding Stellner's death are detailed in a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court on Wednesday. According to the complaint: Fenick and Stellner went to Bullfeathers bar on State Street the evening of April 25. They met up with Katz and Daley there, all four leaving together after 1 a.m. They met up again later at Stellner and Fenick's apartment, but first, Daley and Katz went to a BP gas station on Packers Avenue where he bought heroin from a woman later identified as Mull. At the time, Mull, who also uses the names Lavonia Slater and Kimberly Woods, was out on bail on charges that she sold heroin to undercover police officers in December 2004. Once the men got back to the apartment, Daley used about half of the heroin - the half-gram or so cost $100 - because he'd provided about $80 of the money used to buy it. Daley told police the heroin "hit me pretty hard." When he woke at 5 a.m., the rest of it was gone. He left the apartment at 7:15 a.m. Katz told police he used between half and a third of the remaining heroin. It was his first time using the drug, he said, and Daley had warned the group it seemed strong and not to use as much as he did. Fenick told police she cooked some heroin and then injected Stellner because "Stellner had a difficult time injecting drugs." Fenick then injected herself. Fenick and Katz went into one room and Daley and Stellner stayed in the living room. Fenick said she woke up when she heard the alarm clock of a third roommate ringing. That roommate later called out that she couldn't wake Stellner. Katz said he was called in to the room and saw Stellner "balled up" on her knees and cold to the touch. It appeared to him that she was dead. He told police he began to "flip out" and left the apartment as he heard sirens approach. Dr. Robert Huntington, the forensic doctor who performed Stellner's autopsy, said she died due to heroin. Daley told police that in the days following Stellner's death, Mull contacted him to ask if he had told the police who provided the drugs. After Stellner's death, a confidential informant told police Mull was still selling heroin. She was now advertising that it was so good it had killed people, the complaint stated. Cindy Stellner, the dead woman's mother, laments the reckless behavior that led to her daughter's death. All of those involved are young, which is sad, she said, but she doesn't feel bad for any of them. She also believes that if one of the others had died and her daughter had lived, her daughter could be one of those facing charges. "You make your bed, you've got to lie in it," Cindy Stellner said. "You just don't think at that age. They are playing with each other's lives when they do this. Life is too precious for that." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin