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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.
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That's what happens when you do dope. I thought the kids I hung with when I was a teen were bad, but today's kids are just downright stupid. In the 60's some kids used LSD and some smoked pot but that was it and they didn't do it all the time. A few took black beauties which is a diet drug. But no cocaine or heroin. I don't know anyone who got hooked on acid (LSD). But kids on heroin and cocaine will all need rehab. That's why this country is in the mess it's in today. The kids don't know up from down and I can't believe they can hold down a job. My stepson is into stuff but he's 23 and I made him leave and live with his grandmother and grandfather because I have a 13 year old son and I'm teaching him not to make the choices his stepbrother did. I feel sorry for my wife because she has defended him on everything. It's just a shame. I told her my son isn't going to be like his stepbrother.
When integration and not being able to spank or even discipline your child came about all this stuff started happening. Heroin and cocaine was a black thing when I was a teen. And my dad would have kicked my butt if I was doing what kids are doing today. What the psycologist's did when they said you can't spank your child started ruining the family structure. Every family needs a disciplinarian to hold the family intact. Kids aren't adults. They're kids and dumb as s hit. We had five kids in my family. We lived in a predominately black community in Baltimore. But my dad raise us right even though he was tough on my brother. But we all grew up and had families except my stupid brother. My dad's been dead for about 15 years and my brother still doesn't think my dad was right in his ways of discipline. Oh well. If he didn't my brother might have been dead.
WHAT!!!!!
"heroin and cocaine was a black thing"
This makes NO sense whatsoever.
"Anchorage authorities believe Warner didn't intend to harm the girls."
Are really that ignorant in Alaska? This druggie should be locked up and stay there!
What kind of a human being injects kids with heroine?
Thug punk!
What about the other two guy's that went with to pick up the 14 year old girl (CHILD) and then go back to Warner's apartment to do there gram together. Are they adults as well? Have they been charged with anything? They are just as much to blame since they left her on the bed until the next morning. They must not be Vets with PT SD therefor that's not sensational news to report on.
Instead of giving druggies welfare, we need to use that money to incarcerate them and save the children.
you really think thats the answer? Those that served will come back-and @!$%# WILL change, one way or another. Your statement smacks of racism. You related to that ass hat sheriff out there?
A lot of the vets that came back from a war have had social problems to deal with. And, a lot of these vets were parents. It's a good idea as a parent to have the other parent not joining the service, and to stay home to take care of the kids. A lot of you people writting here are down on the father because he worked the graveyard shift. It doesn't matter what shift he worked, this kid was going to get out and do her thing.
You parents out there say that there is no way that I would let my kid do this or that. To them I say bullcrap. I myself raised 2 daughters. The wife & I think we did a good job and our friends think that as well. And, I can say with a fact that teenage girls are very very sneaky. You might think they are walking the straight & narrow. But, that is what they are hoping that you are thinking. I know just how devious they can be. And, if they tell you one thing & you think it's true. It's probably not. And, parents teenage daughters are excellant liars. They might look you straight in the eye & you would think that they are giving you the GOD'S HONEST TRUTH, but you find out latter all they did was lie to your face.
This father clearly tried to do his best. He was earning a living for his family. The daughter chose the wrong path in life & she had to pay the ultimate price. We are all given two paths to follow in life. As a parent we all hope that our child/children choose the right path. Sorry to say some don't. We try to help them make the right choices when they are growing up & we hope that they will follow through when they finally sprout there wings. It's just sometimes with much sorrow they don't!!
The Gift
It is time to tell the tale. War stories have always had an attraction, especially to young males seeking to validate their sense of manhood. A true war story has no moral rectitude, a true war story has an uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. True war stories are revealing and often an indictment of inhuman acts committed by men who no longer recognize the faces of their own people. If you want to test yourself and measure the strength of your own character see if you have the courage to refuse to participate in killing, rape or torture. See if you have the courage to resist a direct order to kill non-combatants or join a gang rape. Cowards have no ability to resist peer pressure or to question what they know is wrong. Cowards follow orders without question.
I went to Viet Nam as an American fighting man and came home as a human being, that is why I still feel as a stranger in a strange land. I am still traveling, engaged in an Odyssey that seems endless. I no longer recognize my home. The constant drum beat of fear that the media and our elected leaders trumpet has turned the American people into paranoid psychotics. We have willingly sacrificed our children on the altar of militarism and have corrupted their character with easy kills. Our technology enables the bravery of being out of range and exposes the cowardice of collateral damage. How much is an Afghani or Iraqi child worth? How much are your children worth? In Viet Nam there was a term, a solatium, this was a payment made to a family whose member had been killed by accident, mistake or friendly fire. A Vietnamese child was worth $500 hundred dollars. This was supposed to absolve us of the killing.
There is a direct correlation between the increase in violence and the return of veterans from wars overseas. Men who have been trained to kill by reflex and have been psychologically conditioned to regard other human beings as less than themselves are a walking time bomb. We have brought our wars home with us and have gifted them to America. When the planes flew into the World Trade Center Viet Nam veterans that I knew said , “ Welcome to the war America. “ One of my brothers-in-arms, who was at Khe Sanh and has since died of cancer said, “ They should have flown the planes into Wall Street.” This is the bitter strange fruit that we are harvesting now in our communities. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are a ripe crop of death and destruction that will be with us soon. Heroin addiction is going to come out of the poppy fields in Afghanistan. The overrunning of the FOB in which 9 American GI’s were killed is a harbinger of things to come. They were exposed on the mountain fire base to purposefully draw out the Taliban. Sacrificed by the men in the rear with the gear. Be afraid America because we are all coming home soon filled with a rage so intense it will scorch the nation.
Dave ionno
Veteran for peace
".. .direct correlation ..." .. source? I believe that studies have shown that there is actually an inverse correlation .. .It's just that every time that a vet is involved in a crime, the media trumpets that fact ... makes it seem that vets are deranged killers when just the opposite is the case ...
To Alcibiades,
I love that name. His address at Athens is pure history. The correlation is anecdotal based on my knowing what other Viet Nam veterans have said and done. The VA is gathering data on suicide and spousal abuse. The media does play it, the bubble headed bleach blonde who loves the blood. Keep on keepin on my brother
dave
Are you half as tricky as old Alcibiades? I think not...
OMG Dave ur talking about COP Kahler. Look at where they put those guys. I saw it, I knew they were gonna catch hell. Mountain ridges on 3 sides..plunging fire, 9 kia. No accountability. Godspeed Dave..Rebel[ REMF's suck..]
"Anchorage authorities believe Warner didn't intend to harm the girls."
Seriously?
Injected. Heroin. = Harmful.
Maybe he gave the heroin to the girls to calm them ? You know they could see Russia from there. On a serious point, not all veterans are heroes, or even good people. I don't think the Navy, or the marines he worked with are to proud of him.
The extraneous comments in the article are interesting, heroin use down, marijuana use rising? Could people finally be turning to the safer drug marijuana after trying heroin because their use of the gateway drug alcohol led them to heroin?
And quite frankly I'm sick of hearing every soldier accused of a crime pull the PSD card, it's complete BS to consider it a defense or excuse, these soldiers made concious decisions to commit crimes, it had nothing to do with PSD.
I agree that the PSD thing is insulting to those that were on the front lines and dodging IEDs on a daily basis.
I heard ya knockin on my cellar door, "I luv ya baby can i have some more?" OOhh the damage done...
What the hell does the fact that he served in the Navy have to do with it? If he was an ex-Janitor they wouldn't have said "Janitorial Veteran Injects..."
But if they served in the military it's some how always a significant part of the story even when it's not? I think it's this idea that if they served in the military they are somehow above this kind of behavior. They are just like the rest of the population and a rather young demo at that and prone to make the kind of mistakes that young people make in any population. I don't know if they still do it but when I served in the Air Force in the early eighties, I served with several people who were there because they were given the choice of serve or jail. Not exactly a policy that ensures the highest ethical standards from those who serve.
The point; stop tacking the military BS up like it's somehow relevant to every story. This guy was an idiot who did something stupid regardless of his past.
he didnt intend to hurt them? and just wanting to get them high is so much better? and what is a 26 year old man doing hanging out with minors doesnt that raise any questions
Awww did I hurt the Widdle baby's feelings? The fact that you wont condon there actions says alot about
you. Take Knowledge, Take wisdom and kill them both.. Clearly your deluded. you know nothing about my
life you crone Nor do I care. Go find some innocents to kill you blind fool. And while your at it Sh*t Bag - go
back to the stone age where recklessness actually had some merit. And stop taking my Air.
LOL you female dog!