ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska teenager who was injected with heroin by a 26-year-old man died Thursday almost a week after the incident, Anchorage police said.
Jena Dolstad of Anchorage had been listed in critical condition since she was taken to the hospital Friday with a drug overdose. The 14-year-old died shortly after noon, police spokeswoman Anita Shell said.
Sean Warner is under arrest on charges of delivering a controlled substance to a minor at least three years younger, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and evidence tampering. With the girl’s death Warner now faces additional charges, including manslaughter, Shell said.
According to court papers filed before the girl died, two other men went with Warner to pick the girl up the evening of Dec. 22 and take her back to Warner’s home to hang out.
Warner was sharing a gram of heroin with the men, and the girl said she was willing to try something “new” but didn’t want to inject herself, according to the documents. Warner tried to inject the girl, but failed, so he had her lie down on his bed and hold out an arm, then used his belt as a tourniquet and shot 25 to 30 units of heroin, taking several times to find a vein, the papers say.
The two witnesses told authorities they left the girl on the bed and found her the next morning, face down in her vomit.
“They felt for her pulse, sat her up, and grew concerned at her condition and upset at Warner’s ambivalence,” the documents state.
Instead of calling 911 over fears authorities would find drugs, Warner gave the teen Suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat opiate addicts, according to the court papers. He only called 911 after the girl began to convulse a couple of hours later, the papers say.
Warner locked his bedroom door, and officers didn’t search it when he told them it was his roommate’s room, the documents state. After police left, Warner and one of the witnesses put needles and other “related evidence” into a box then dumped it behind a trash bin at a nearby business, according to the papers, which say police later recovered paraphernalia including syringes.
Dolstad was found to have heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine in her system when she was brought to the hospital, charging documents said. Medics told authorities she had sustained damage to her brain and heart.
Authorities have said the heroin used is known on the street at “China White,” considered more potent than common tar heroin.
Warner is being held on $100,000 cash bail.
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