Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jun 2004
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright: 2004 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://connect.sptimes.com/contactus/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.sptimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author: Richard Raeke
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

MOM NOT GUILTY IN SON'S DEATH FROM OVERDOSE

The Woman's Daughter Testified That Her Brother Would Manhandle Their 
Mother If He Didn't Get His Way

NEW PORT RICHEY - Diana Jones sat on the stand Tuesday, a witness in the 
case against her mother. Her older brother, Perry Lennon Jones, was dead.

Her mother, Mary Catherine Schwartz, faced a charge of neglect of a child, 
a felony punishable by 15 years in prison, for his death.

And Diana had to explain what happened Feb. 24, 2003.

On that night, she and her mother believed that the 16-year-old boy had 
been smoking marijuana in the living room of their New Port Richey home as 
usual.

"He would smoke cigarettes and marijuana in front of my mother because she 
could not stop him from doing it," testified Diana, now 16. "She gave up 
because it was only pot. Mom didn't know about the others."

Her brother fell asleep on the couch that night. Soon he began snoring and 
breathing rapidly. Two hours later he began making gurgling sounds. Then 
his heart stopped.

Doctors at Community Hospital pronounced him dead soon after 11 p.m. Perry 
Jones had smoked heroin. He suffered a pulmonary edema when his lungs 
filled with fluid.

Prosecutors argued that Schwartz, 50, did not take the appropriate steps to 
prevent her son's death.

The jury did not agree Tuesday, finding her not guilty after a 40- minute 
deliberation.

Diana said her brother would toss her and her mother around if he didn't 
get his way.

But prosecutor Eric Rosario argued that Schwartz "just gave up."

A certified nurse's assistant, she allowed him to use drugs in the house. 
Then, when he began breathing rapidly, Diana told her mother that Perry had 
found a bag of brown powder and suspected he might have smoked heroin.

Knowing that, Schwartz should have called an ambulance, Rosario said.

Instead, she worried about taking him to the emergency room where he would 
be arrested or committed to a hospital under the Baker Act, Rosario said.

"For two hours they watched Perry Jones die," he said.

Perry Jones had been released from drug treatment a week earlier, said 
defense attorney Paul Firmani. "Maybe it wasn't Mary Catherine Schwartz's 
fault. Maybe Perry Jones had something to do with it," he added.

And if prosecutors were looking to hang his death on somebody, many others 
could shoulder the blame, Firmani said. It was not fair to place all the 
blame with Schwartz, a 100-pound woman who had been pushed around by her 
200-pound son.

"Sometimes even hardworking, single moms give up," he added. "And she gave 
up saying "no' to her son."
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