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Anchorage Police Dept. via AP
Sean Warner, 26, is accused of charges including manslaughter. According to his family, Warner served as a Navy field medic in Afghanistan and now suffers from post-traumatic stress.
ANCHORAGE - A 26-year-old Navy veteran who served as a medic in Afghanistan pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he injected two Alaska teens with drugs on separate occasions, giving one of them a fatal dose.
Sean Warner was first charged with injecting Jena Dolstad, a 14-year-old from Anchorage. She died from the heroin dose almost a week later, and the charge was consequently raised to manslaughter.
He is also charged with evidence tampering and two counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance.
Court records show Warner now faces a new charge of earlier injecting another teen with heroin sometime between Dec. 14 and Dec. 21.
Police Lt. Dave Parker said the second teen — identified only as "R.H." — is a 17-year-old girl. He said she was injected multiple times by Warner.
Anchorage authorities believe Warner didn't intend to harm the girls.
Warner is being held on $100,000 cash bail. A trial was set for March 27.
Dolstad's stepfather, Brett Williams, told NBC station Channel 2 news/KTUU.com his family had some ups and downs, but Jena always came back home. Williams said he's now making arrangements for her funeral and celebration of life.
He told the station she was a typical teenager. He said her mother wasn't around much, and added Jena, simply, made a wrong choice.
“I know she got mixed in with some people I tried to warn her about,” he said on the phone. “And it went from there.”
'She just made a mistake'
A single father who works graveyard shifts, Williams insisted he gave her a stable home.
When asked if his stepdaughter slipped through the cracks, Williams responded, “She just made a mistake, that’s all she did.
A number of Facebook tribute pages have been set up in honor of Dolstad.
Warner's uncle, Doug Tweedie of Bend, Ore., told The Associated Press that Warner served as a Navy field medic in Afghanistan and now suffers from post-traumatic stress.
Tweedie said he and his wife helped raise Warner and that Warner did very well in school and was ambitious. Warner also did well in the Navy, he said.
Tweedie said he spoke with Warner through Warner's father.
"He's terribly remorseful," Tweedie said Thursday. "He's in a very difficult spot."
According to court papers filed before Dolstad's death, two other men went with Warner to pick up the girl the evening of Dec. 22, and they took her to Warner's home to hang out.
Warner was sharing a gram of heroin with the men, and Dolstad said she was willing to try something "new" but didn't want to inject herself, according to the court papers. Warner tried to inject the girl but failed, so he had her lie on his bed and hold out an arm. He then used his belt as a tourniquet and shot 25 to 30 units of heroin, taking several times to find a vein, the papers say.
The two witnesses told authorities they left the girl — identified as "J.D." in court papers — on the bed and found her the next morning, face-down in her vomit.
Warner initially balked at calling 911 because he feared authorities would find drugs, and instead gave the teen Suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat opiate addicts, the court papers say. He called 911 after the girl began to convulse a couple of hours after he gave her the Suboxone, the papers say.
Syringes
Warner locked his bedroom door, and responding officers didn't search it when he told them it was his roommate's room, according to the documents. After police left, Warner and one of the witnesses put needles and other "related evidence" into a box then tossed it behind a trash bin at a nearby business, according to the papers, which say police later recovered paraphernalia including syringes.
Dolstad was found to have heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine in her system when she was brought to the hospital, charging documents said. Medics told authorities she sustained damage to her brain and heart.
Authorities have said the heroin used is known on the street at "China White," considered more potent than common tar heroin.
As far as Tweedie is concerned, no one really knows what happened.
"At this point, two addicts are blaming another addict," he said. "I don't know if I believe another addict."
Figures published last month by the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future program — an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students, college students, and young adults — show the level of heroin use had remains "steady" but marijuana use has risen for four straight years.
Alcohol use — and occasions of heavy drinking — continued a long-term gradual decline among teens, reaching historically low levels in 2011, the study found.
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NBC News, The Associated Press and msnbc.com editor Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
its her own fault she died who really cares dumb bitch
michelle,
A girl died. Dumb B!tch? You're the pot calling the kettle black!
Michelle,
You have some serious issues. I just read some of your past posts and it is all kill, cut throats, and a racial slur or two thrown in. Get some help girl.
Michelle,
You're not fooling anyone with that name. We all know you are Sean Warner from the article.
Michelle: Forgot to take your meds today? Or are you really all that stupid ? a 14 year old girl died !
Okay, I want answers! Who the Hell let michelle out of her padded room and granted her acess to a computer? I want a full detailed report STAT!
U.S carries the heaviest cost of Iraq-Afghan war, not only we are in debt of 1.2 trillion, our soldiers, who are basically children, are dying of depression and no purpose of life. These US kids are raised in luxuries and not accustomed with hard lives. Those Iraq or Afghan children perhaps could recover and move on easier than US soldiers.
This story isn't about a Vet, it is about a predator and lack of parenting. No one at that age dies with so many drugs in her system without lack of being parented. A predator easily saw his chance and took full advantage of it to be a Big Man. No matter what this predator had done with his life, he still would had been a predator. Predators aren't taught they are born.
"...who served as a medic in Afghanistan pleaded not guilty..."
I hate when news sources use "pleaded" instead of "pled" ...
"pled: /plɛd/ verb : a simple past tense and past participle of plead."
He pled not guilty!
WTF does him being a Navy Vet have to do with this story?
What a tragedy. It simultaneously proves that some drugs should always be illegal and that you can't legislate intelligence. I know those kids made mistakes, but the reality of the matter is that some mistakes have permanent, irreversible consequences.
It'd be easy to blame the father for not being involved, but we simply don't know enough about the situation. My brother decided to do the same thing when he was 14 and my parents have been nothing short of phenomenal. Despite being given every opportunity to change, he has dropped out of high school and has been in and out of jail for the past three years (he is 17 now). Some kids just make really dumb choices, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Did your brother have a parent in his household from 11pm to 7am or so? Or did he go be each night knowing no one was there for him? Any parent with a lick of sense knows you can not leave them home without supervsion after dark and before day light (hell any time day or night). During the day when they are in school is tough enough. Why would a single parent ever work midnights with a teenager in the house?
I dont get why this is news, you shoot smack...you might die. Dont wanna die, dont shoot smack.
What a friggin bum this warner is. He "didn't intend to hurt the kid?" What did this Death Merchant intend?
so if the insanity plea or family background does not work there`s still the post trauma plea for scums.
I think he should be charged with more than manslaughter, he should be charged with murder! My God, the girl was 14. All teen have some problems, I don't care what kind of a home they're coming from. The fact that the man was a vet means nothing. His lawyer is looking at his defense and trying to get some sympathy because he served in Afghanistan.
Wise people say, "never lose hope." If that girl lived to see her 20th birthday, who knows what her life might have been like.
Think about all those hippies from the 60's. Many of whom grew up, went to school, got great jobs, moved to suburbia and voted for Reagan!
Yeah, those 60's hippies finally got off the drugs and ran for political office. That explains so very much as to why this country is where it is today.
wow.. disgusting predators.. preying on young girls.. these people should be SHOT and KILLED.
how sad..
What is really needed is more education in the schools about the hazards of drugs. If kids were educated on what drugs and alcohol actually do to you - including heroin, meth, cocaine etc.... they may actually make better choices knowing what they're doing to themselves. These kids don't know what they're experimenting with - China White being more potent than regular tar heroin - who knows that? More education at an earlier age other than learning on their own via experimentation. Kids experimenting are younger and younger these days - they need to learn what they are dealing with.
Authorities believe he didn't mean to harm the girls?
Please tell me under what scenario injecting someone else with herioin against their will beneficial?
We can bash him all day long but the fact remains she contributed to her own death as well.
why in the world would anyone ever inject anything into them? Eveeryone knows how additive herion is, so why try it?
I agree with ManfromNantucket, the majority enters the military because of issues, they are told what to do and when to do it all their military carreer, they dont have to make many decsions ontheir own them when theyget out they are completely lost abnd become losers!
This guy deserves life. If he was drugging them, it was likely so he could have his way with them. Thats RAPE!!!! Hes a RAPIST!!! Wait, he's not just a Rapist, he's a CHILD RAPIST!!!!!!
And he's a Murderer, since he killed one of the girls while attempting his RAPE!!!! That's a death caused while committing a crime.
He didnt mean to harm them, yeah right. FRY HIM.
What's a 26 yo doing partying with a 14 yo. Perhaps Pedophilia is an issue is well. Take this worthless scum behind the barn and put it down.
First off Ive been watching this sense day 1...I happen to live in Anchorage where this took place. There are a ton of vets and active military here. Just because you serve doesnt make you an amazing person. There are so many men and women out there...if you remember correctly just a few years ago they were accepting anybody into the military...be it gang members or murders.
Although I have been following this story sense day one that the girl got put on life support...Im still stuck for both sides. She did ask for it. He shouldnt have put that needle in her arm but whats a junkie to do? You cannot expect anymore. They just want to party and have a good time. And it ended sour sadly. ALOT of girls in Alaska are hos at that age. Doing whatever the older guys want to be seen as cool. Im sure someone was trying to get laid. Girls are doing whatever nowadays to fit in. And Heroin is not the limit.
PTSD again !
Could it possibly be that wars are bad for human beings?
Could it possibly be that wars destroy economies are both sides?
Nah - thats not heroic.
Must be some lefty liberal making flower child statements.
john537378 FU, A Navy Vet.
so the 14 year old was totally innocent in all of this huh? she bears absolutely no responsibility in this tragedy? - i have two girls ages 8 and 12 and i know if circumstance arises, i can say girls, stay in the house until i come back - never done that nor do i intend to at their age, but just saying, i can say "stay put girls until i come back' and they will...
I am not going to think that the 12 year old will get the notion in her head to:
(a) to hang out;
(b) to hang out with men;
(c) to hang out with men and 'try something new'.
It is utterly sickening and totally pathetic when you guys come off all the time saying americans kids are just kids and they have no knowledge of right or wrong but yet on your tv shows it is commonplace for the 'blameless' teenagers to go on dates, slam doors in parents faces and do whatever they please because hey they are just kids... (roll eyes)
she is just an american kid, doing whatever they wanna do all the time 'cause no consequences are there...
As a former Infantry Platoon Sergeant I know PTSD is a very real thing. Once a month I would make it a practice to sit down with each and every platoon member and have a chat to see how they were doing. In the interim I had an open door policy my platoon knew where I could be located 24/7 if someone needed anything. More than once when returning to the United States I found myself referring a soldier to the Mental Hygiene Clinic as the issues were way out of my league. Of course back in my day I believe it was called Battle Fatigue. But to date I have yet to meet a person suffering from PTSD that cannot differentiate right from wrong. There may be cases just none that I've seen.
This guy is a @!$%#ing loser! PTSD? Ya, whatever!!!! He is a junkie, who killed two kids. He knew exactly what the consequences would be and now that he gets caught he cries "I have PTSD" feel sorry for me. LOSER!!!
he didnt kill 2 kids. One girl died from the drugs and there was another girl that he shot up with heroin just weeks before the girl that died. She is alive and well...and she was 17...
why is a 26 year old consorting with a 14 year old? and if he was a war medic, why couldn't he find a vein? and why didn't he know which dosage to give somebody who had never tried heroin before?
all i see are a couple of lives destroyed.
Good questions. I wonder if he couldn't find a vein, because he was stoned. ??
I am so sick of parents ignoring their responsibilities...this dad says she was a "typical teenager" - sorry, typical teenagers do not use heroin! They do not hang around with sleezy 27-year-old drug pushers. Not if they have grown up in a loving, caring, responsible home.
I am also sick of the near worship of the military in our country. Look at what has come out this past week involving servicemen or recent vets. The military branches are organization which teach aggression and violence. Seriously, what kind of people willingly join such an organization?