Pubdate: Mon, 20 May 2002
Source: Wilmington Morning Star (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Wilmington Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.wilmingtonstar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500
Author: Amy E. Turnbull

TAKING A DOSE OF DEATH

It must have seemed harmless enough. After all, she was their friend - a 
nursing student. She worked in a pharmacy.

Surely she knew what she was doing when she handed out the pills. Surely 
she wouldn't give them anything dangerous.

Five college-age kids were at the party. At least four took the pills and 
three became violently ill. One died.

While the nursing student - who admitted taking 100-mg. morphine pills from 
the pharmacy where she worked - faces a slew of charges for stealing the 
medication and giving it out that night, the mother of the young man who 
died thinks Amanda Karn got away with murder.

The circumstances

Patty Cavallaro said her son, Rosario Cavallaro III, known as Rossy, moved 
to Wilmington with a friend in January 2001 from their home in Corning, N.Y.

He had turned 21 on Jan. 1, 2001, and college in New York hadn't worked out 
for him. Rossy, a healthy, energetic young man who was close to his family, 
worked two jobs in New York and drove his 8-year-old sister to school every 
morning before he moved to North Carolina.

Someone in Rossy's family or circle of friends came to visit him in 
Wilmington every month he lived here, Mrs. Cavallaro said.

On May 15 of last year, Rossy called his mother and said he would be coming 
home soon to Corning to see his little brother play baseball.

That night, Rossy and his roommate, Aaron Powell, a 23-year-old student at 
the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and friends Kevin Kellum, 
24, Emily Carr, 21, and Miss Karn gathered at Mill Creek Apartments for a 
small party.

While it's not clear who did what, law enforcement investigators uncovered 
evidence that the group's partying included drinking alcohol, smoking 
marijuana and inhaling nitrous oxide.

And at least four of them took the time-release morphine tablets called MS 
Contin that Miss Karn stole.

It is unclear whether Miss Karn took a pill herself.

As the party slid into the morning of the 16th, Mr. Powell, Mr. Kellum, and 
Ms. Carr threw up violently, and Mr. Cavallaro passed out on the sofa.

The next morning, the group realized that Rossy was dead.

Cause of death

It was May when Rossy died, but it wasn't until August that reports came 
back showing what killed him.

Mrs. Cavallaro said Rossy had a low level of alcohol in his system, but 
that it was the morphine tablet - especially in combination with alcohol - 
that killed him.

Mrs. Cavallaro said a toxicologist told her that if the others who took the 
pills hadn't vomited, they would likely have died, too.

"I don't think they realize the dangers of these pills - these little tiny 
blue pills," Mrs. Cavallaro said. She said Ms. Carr told her that she knew 
what the pill was that night, but one of the young men said he didn't.

Mrs. Cavallaro has since learned that her son experimented with the trendy 
club drug Ecstasy, but she is still certain that if her son had known the 
risks of taking MS Contin, he wouldn't have taken it.

"He took a pill and he made a mistake and it cost him his life," Mrs. 
Cavallaro said. "I want people to be aware that this is dangerous and it 
can kill you."

MS Contin is used for people in extreme pain and who have developed a 
tolerance to lower doses of morphine. Doctors are advised to start patients 
on lower doses.

Mrs. Cavallaro said her nephew died of cancer May 5 and that he had been 
taking 60-mg. tablets of time-release morphine.

The Physicians' Desk Reference advises that morphine - in any quantity - 
shouldn't be taken with alcohol or other depressants because of the 
cumulative effects, including central nervous system depression, that may 
occur.

Who's responsible?

Mrs. Cavallaro believes Miss Karn is criminally responsible, and she may 
sue the pharmacy where Miss Karn worked because she was able to access the 
deadly pills.

"It's just like a drunk driver - they don't mean to go out and kill 
anybody, but it happens," she said.

Mrs. Cavallaro has news articles showing that other prosecutors have 
charged people in the deaths of those to whom they've administered lethal 
drugs. Even bartenders who over-serve a drunken person who later dies bear 
some criminal responsibility, and they're just doing their jobs.

"What I don't understand is that almost exactly the same thing happened in 
Florida, and those two got charged with manslaughter," she said.

District Attorney John Carriker and his assistant prosecutors have decided 
not to charge Miss Karn with any crime in connection with the death. She is 
charged only with stealing the pills and giving them out.

"At this time there is not a basis for charging (in the death), and Phyllis 
(Assistant District Attorney Phyllis Gorham) has spent a good bit of time 
on this case, working with the officers," Mr. Carriker said, but he 
declined to explain the decision further because Miss Karn's other charges 
are pending.

Sgt. Jeff Allsbrook of City-County Vice and Narcotics, which investigated 
the drug charges, offered that a jury is unlikely to convict a defendant 
when the victim willingly took the drugs.

Vice Detective Craig Gore added, "There should be some type of punishment 
for people passing out drugs that people die from. Right now, there's not."

But several local lawyers have said there is a clear case for manslaughter, 
if not second-degree murder, against Miss Karn.

First-degree murder requires elements such as a deadly weapon, malice and 
premeditation.

But according to the North Carolina General Statute on first-degree murder: 
All other kinds of murder, including that which shall be proximately caused 
by the unlawful distribution of opium or any other synthetic or natural 
salt, compound, derivative, or preparation of opium, or cocaine . when the 
ingestion of such substance causes the death of the user, shall be deemed 
murder in the second degree.

Second-degree usually requires malice, but a lesser charge of voluntary 
manslaughter does not.

Then there's involuntary manslaughter, which requires "conduct in such a 
reckless manner as to show a thoughtless disregard for the consequences or 
a heedless indifference to the rights and safety of others."

"I guess I don't understand why (charges) weren't pursued," Mrs. Cavallaro 
said. "I don't exactly know what law needs to be changed."

Sgt. Allsbrook said, "I would like to see - if you are selling and 
delivering drugs - I would like to see death aggravate the drug charges" 
and result in heavier punishment.

Mrs. Cavallaro doesn't feel like the felony drug charges, even if they 
carry substantial prison time, are enough to make up for her son's death.

Attorney Thom Goolsby, who is representing all of the 20-somethings at the 
party that night, said he has no comment on the possibility of a murder 
charge, but he said all of his clients are remorseful and distraught over 
Rossy's death, and that none of them has tried to justify his actions.

Mr. Goolsby added that Miss Karn has never been in trouble before and "this 
was something - like Rossy's mother said - just a little pill and nobody 
thought it could have done so much harm."
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