No charges in teen's death from meth-laced "worb water"

Snohomish County prosecutors have decided not to file charges against a 29-year-old Lynnwood man who was arrested last year after a teenager died from drinking methamphetamine-laced "worb water" in the man's home.

According to court documents filed last week in Snohomish County Superior Court, Jamie D. Leavitt, 16, of Mill Creek, was a drug addict who had been to treatment several times when he visited the Lynnwood man on April 23, 2008. The man and his girlfriend told police they were smoking meth from a water pipe but refused to allow Leavitt to smoke with them.

Leavitt then asked if he could drink the water from the pipe, known as "worb water." Worb water is the highly concentrated meth-laced water that's left in a water pipe after it's been used to smoke methamphetamine.

The man told police that he had been pouring his worb water into a mug and had been saving it to drink later.

Leavitt grabbed the mug, drank the entire contents and became "extremely high almost immediately," according to court documents.

Leavitt then got "out of control," the man told police, and repeatedly tried to hug him and his girlfriend. According to police, the man restrained Leavitt, punched him in the face several times and then left him unconscious for several hours before calling 911.

Leavitt died later at Stevens Hospital in Edmonds.

The teen had blunt force injuries to his head and body, but the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office determined he had died of acute methamphetamine intoxication.

Police said the man told detectives he had gotten high from drinking small amounts of the water in the past. The man was arrested and booked into Snohomish County Jail on investigation of second-degree murder after the teen's death, but he was released several days later pending a charging decision from prosecutors.

The Seattle Times is not naming the man because he has not been charged with a crime.

Lynnwood police said they had been hoping the man would be charged with homicide by a controlled substance, but Snohomish County prosecutors said in court documents it would have been difficult to prove that the man gave the teen the drugs that killed him.

The state statute criminalizing the act of providing illegal drugs to a person who dies from an overdose has been on the books for nearly two decades, but prosecutors say it can hard to prove.

"We're disappointed," said Lynnwood Police Department Detective Doug Teachworth, "but hopefully we won't see any more of these cases. It was pretty tragic."

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com