EVERETT — A man who smoked methamphetamine inside a car with a toddler will avoid prison if he follows through with drug treatment.
A judge Thursday agreed to grant Jacob Horowitz’s request for a special sentence designated for drug addicts. Horowitz, 24, will be required to undergo inpatient treatment for at least three months and extensive outpatient counseling once he’s released. He’ll be under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections for two years. Horowitz will be required to undergo regular drug testing and is banned from associating with drug dealers or users.
He faced up to 17 months in prison after pleading guilty to endangerment with a controlled substance. If he hadn’t received the special sentence, he wouldn’t have been supervised by the state Department of Corrections after his release from prison.
“I’m ready to get clean,” Horowitz said Thursday.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Marybeth Dingledy told the defendant not to squander this chance to conquer his addiction.
“This may be your last chance. I hope you understand that,” she said.
In July, Horowitz and Jeanie Brewer were seen passing each other a pipe while they were parked outside the Westwood Park Apartments in Edmonds. Detectives noticed a pair of small hands moving in the backseat. The child was buckled into a car seat.
The windows were partially down and officers could see that smoke remained inside the car as the couple exhaled. The 16-month-old is Brewer’s daughter.
Police arrested the pair. It’s against the law to expose children to meth, or ingredients being used to make the drug.
Detectives found a glass pipe and .7 grams of suspected heroin in the vehicle. The girl was placed in the custody of her grandmother and taken to a hospital for an evaluation.
Horowitz told a community corrections officer during an evaluation this month that at the time of the offense he didn’t care that there was a child in the car. His only concern was getting high, court papers said.
Horowitz began smoking marijuana at 16. From there, he experimented with ecstasy, cocaine and other illegal drugs. He was 19 when he started abusing prescription pain medication and turned to heroin when he could no longer get OxyContin. For three years he smoked heroin but eventually started injecting it. He also was using meth.
Brewer is scheduled to go to trial in November.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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