Even if Almeda Sullivan did not place the drugs on the 21-year-old’s tongue before he fatally overdosed in her basement, there is still enough evidence to try her for first-degree murder, a judge ruled on Monday.
Sullivan, 51, faces one count of first-degree murder in the death of Carter Higdon. She is also accused of providing drugs to three other young adults who fatally overdosed in 2008 — one of them in her Centennial home.
On Monday, Arapahoe District Court Judge John Wheeler found that Sullivan’s connection to the first three deaths, combined with the similar circumstances of Higdon’s death, support the first-degree murder charge.
“At hearing, the People put on evidence that the defendant engaged each of the four young adults in the same pattern of grooming, confidence-building, distribution, training, addiction, encouragement and opportunity, thereby establishing a pattern of conduct sufficient to support a charge,” Wheeler wrote in his order.
Sullivan allegedly gave Opana pain pills to Higdon, who was the fourth death connected to the Centennial mother. Opana is a narcotic painkiller similar to oxycodone.
Sierra Renee Cochran, 19, died at Sullivan’s home after she accidentally overdosed in January 2008. Nine months later, 28-year-old Lindsey Jo Saidy and Martynas “Tez” Simanskas, 20, died hours after Sullivan allegedly sold them prescription medications.
More than three years after the third death, Higdon was found dead in Sullivan’s basement on Oct. 1, 2011. All four victims had Opana in their system.
Prosecutors do not have to prove Sullivan intended to kill Higdon. Instead, the charge only requires them to show — based on the previous three deaths — that Sullivan knew her actions were dangerous and remained indifferent.
During an eight-part preliminary hearing, prosecutors painted Sullivan as a manipulative woman who pushed prescription pills on young adults, often teaching them how to crush and snort the powerful medications. She is accused of selling more than 20,000 pills out of her home and placing pills on the tongues of people too high to stand, according to an arrest affidavit.
Defense attorneys argued Sullivan was nothing more than the neighborhood drug dealer and the four victims used and sold drugs before they met Sullivan. Charging Sullivan with first-degree murder with extreme indifference is an unprecedented and unconstitutional extension of the law, they argued.
Sullivan’s next hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 29.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp