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."
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