Pubdate: Wed, 10 Jul 2002
Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA)
Copyright: 2002 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Author: Steve Cannizaro, of the Times-Picayune

COUPLE TO STAY IN JAIL IN OVERDOSE CASE

Judge Also Refuses To Reduce Bonds

A state judge ruled Tuesday that there is probable cause to hold on 
second-degree murder charges a married couple accused of supplying drugs 
that allegedly killed an 18-year-old woman last month.

Keli Robin Nunez, 20, and her husband, Wilfred "Billy" Nunez, 51, both of 
2836 Kenilworth Drive in eastern St. Bernard Parish, were booked June 19 
with second-degree murder. Each is being held in Parish Prison in lieu of 
$1 million bond, authorities said.

State District Judge Jacques Sanborn also refused to reduce their bonds. 
Had Sanborn ruled there wasn't probable cause to hold the Nunezes, they 
would have been released from their bond obligation and freed, although 
they still could have been prosecuted.

The Nunezes are accused of giving methadone wafers to Kecia Beck, 18, a St. 
Bernard Parish woman who went into a drug-induced coma June 7 and died June 
15 at Chalmette Medical Center.

Methadone is normally used to wean people off of heroin. Wilfred Nunez had 
a legal prescription for the wafers.

After a friend of Beck's told detectives where she allegedly had obtained 
the drug, the Nunezes were questioned and were booked on a little-used 
charge that makes it second-degree murder for anyone to distribute 
controlled dangerous drugs that result in another person's death, 
regardless of whether they intended death or injury.

The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is life in prison with no 
parole or sentence suspension.

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens has referred to the Beck death as 
an example of the surging problem this year of prescription-drug overdose 
deaths in St. Bernard Parish. He said his department will make a greater 
effort to pursue murder charges in cases in which people may have died from 
illegally dispensed drugs.

Sheriff's officials said there have been more than 40 overdose cases in St. 
Bernard this year, many of which have led to deaths, although statistics 
are sketchy.

Sheriff's officials said the Nunez case is the first time they can recall 
during Stephens' 18-year tenure that anyone has been booked with murder for 
allegedly supplying drugs that caused a death.

Detectives said Keli Nunez admitted giving Beck half a methadone wafer 
dissolved in water, along with four Soma muscle relaxers. Wilfred Nunez 
said his wife removed the methadone from his prescription without his 
permission, investigators said, but that Wilfred Nunez admitted he threw 
away the bottle after learning Beck had been hospitalized.

Attorneys for the couple on Tuesday tried in court to show that authorities 
don't know if Beck legally received methadone from clinics, which might 
explain the methadone found in her system.

St. Bernard Parish's coroner, Dr. Bryan Bertucci, testified in the hearing 
that there is no doubt the contributor to Beck's death was an overdose of 
methadone.

The coroner said Beck had methadone and combinations of other drugs -- 
including marijuana, anti-depressants and nerve medication similar to Xanax 
- -- in her blood stream. There was no sign of muscle relaxers, he said.

Keli Nunez's attorney is Mike Escudier. Wilfred Nunez is represented by 
Bill Egan.
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