Disregard sleep-deprived Fort Lewis soldier's story on overdose, attorney asks

FORT LEWIS, Pierce County — A Fort Lewis Army private was sleep-deprived and emotionally distraught when he told an investigator he had provided a prescription pill to his 16-year-old girlfriend shortly before she died of a drug overdose in his barracks Feb. 15, an attorney for the soldier told a hearing officer Tuesday.

The admission of Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt on Feb. 20 should be ignored and more weight given to a statement he provided hours after the death, in which he denied providing drugs to Leah King, of Lakewood, and a female friend of King's, also 16, who survived an overdose that day, said Capt. Don-Michael Barbour.

Barbour, in closing arguments of an evidentiary hearing that began last week, said there was insufficient evidence to proceed to a court-martial on an involuntary-manslaughter charge. The hearing, being held on the post, had been set to resume next Wednesday, but it started Tuesday after all parties became available.

Disputing the defense, Capt. John Schriver said there was ample evidence that Bennitt planned and arranged to obtain drugs for him and King on Valentine's Day and then provided a place and means to use controlled substances.

King died of a toxic combination of Opana, the brand name for oxymorphone, a pain reliever similar to morphine, and alprazolam, an anti-anxiety and anti-depression drug marketed as Xanax, according to autopsy findings.

Bennitt, 19, didn't "just end up in the wrong place at the wrong time," Schriver said.

Bennitt said in his Feb. 20 statement that he gave King money to buy Xanax on Feb. 14 and then later, in his barracks, crushed an Opana pill so it could be snorted with a rolled-up dollar bill, Schriver said.

Bennitt knew that crushing a pill would destroy the time-release coating, and also knew that King had ingested 1-½ Opana pills within the past day, Schriver said.

Barbour countered that King's friend told an investigator shortly after the incident that the drugs were King's, and that it was King who split and crushed a pill for the two girls. During the hearing, there was testimony that King had abused drugs in the past.

King's friend did not testify at the hearing; her whereabouts are unknown to Army investigators.

Barbour also noted that Bennitt is alleged to have bought nine Opana pills on Feb. 14, seven of which he provided to another soldier and two of which he used himself.

The "simple math" makes it impossible for him to have provided an Opana to King, Barbour said.

Barbour said Bennitt was sleep-deprived when he gave his Feb. 20 statement because he had been forced out of his room and required to sleep for days on a sofa at another location.

Bennitt had slept for only two hours before making his statement, Barbour said.

Even if Bennitt had given King half of an Opana pill and that is deemed a crime, Barbour said, the act should be charged as reckless endangerment, a lesser offense, he said.

But Shriver said an involuntary-manslaughter charge requires only that Bennitt's overall actions played "an important part in the death" of King.

Shriver said there also was testimony from multiple soldiers and other evidence to support additional charges against Bennitt of selling and using prescription drugs, marijuana, cocaine and Ecstasy.

Another attorney for Bennitt, Capt. Carol Brewer, said that while there might be sufficient evidence to support some of those charges, other allegations were based on the testimony of highly unreliable witnesses.

Maj. Rebecca Connally, the investigating officer at the hearing, took the matter under advisement and later will make a recommendation about whether Bennitt should be tried by court-martial.

The decision about whether to proceed with a court-martial will be made by Brig. Gen. Jeff Mathis, acting commander of Fort Lewis. Bennitt could face up to 82 years in military prison.

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com