Jury finds teen guilty in Ecstasy overdose death

Published 9:23 pm Friday, June 20, 2008

EVERETT — Donalydia Huertas bought drugs for a classmate and didn’t help the 16-year-old girl as the Ecstasy ravaged her body, a Snohomish County jury decided on Thursday.

Now, the court must decide if Huertas will be punished as a juvenile or an adult. That could be the difference between her serving days in juvenile detention or being sent to prison for years.

Huertas, 18, was found guilty of controlled substance homicide in the 2007 overdose death of Danielle McCarthy, 16. Jurors also convicted Huertas of second-degree manslaughter.

The jury acquitted Huertas of first-degree manslaughter, a charge that would have guaranteed she be sentenced as an adult.

Jurors found she was negligent, not reckless, when she failed to summon help for McCarthy as the girl overdosed on Ecstasy on New Year’s Eve 2006.

The lesser charge opens up the possibility that Huertas could be sentenced in juvenile court. She wasn’t quite 18 at the time of McCarthy’s death.

Jurors deliberated for less than two hours in the weeklong trial.

Huertas sobbed after the verdict was read. The teenager, free on bail, rushed out of the courtroom with her mother at her side.

McCarthy’s parents and friends were clearly upset after Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ellen Fair allowed Huertas to remain free until sentencing later this summer.

“She murdered my daughter and she gets to walk out of here. That’s not right. That’s not right,” Lisa McCarthy said.

The verdict is bittersweet, said Donna Carstensen, a McCarthy neighbor.

“I’m extremely pleased she’s a convicted felon,” Carstensen said. “I’m totally disgusted she’s not taken out of here in handcuffs. The McCarthy family needs closure.”

McCarthy took the Ecstasy at a party. Witnesses testified that she repeatedly vomited, wet her pants, begged Huertas not to let her die and suffered a seizure before she was found unresponsive Jan. 1, 2007.

McCarthy was brought to an Edmonds hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Prosecutors alleged that Huertas bought McCarthy two Ecstasy pills. They also accused Huertas of recklessly ignoring the obvious signs that McCarthy needed medical attention. They alleged that Huertas aggressively asserted that she was the younger girl’s caretaker, and for more than eight hours she fought off any suggestions that McCarthy be taken to a hospital.

“Danielle didn’t have to die,” Snohomish County prosecutor Coleen St. Clair said.

Attorney Wayne Fricke told jurors his client wasn’t responsible for McCarthy’s death. She didn’t give McCarthy the drugs. He placed the blame on David Morris, 21. Morris admitted to selling the drugs that killed McCarthy. He was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for controlled substance homicide. He will be allowed to spend half his sentence seeking drug treatment outside prison.

Fricke also argued that Huertas didn’t act recklessly. She also took Ecstasy that night and didn’t know McCarthy was so ill, he said. Huertas, along with the rest of the group, thought McCarthy would pass out and sleep off the effects. Huertas thought the younger girl would be OK, he said.

“Ecstasy is their alcohol,” Fricke said.

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.