Mother guilty in overdose death of teen

Mother guilty in overdose death of teen

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A mother who used heroin with her 15-year-old daughter was convicted of manslaughter for teen‘s overdose death.

Jurors deliberated less than two hours before finding Debra Gatlin Clair guilty of recklessly causing the death of her adopted daughter, Tiffany Clair.

Friday‘s verdict was the first time Tarrant County prosecutors won a conviction against a drug provider for an overdose victim‘s death, the Fort

Worth Star-Telegram reported in Saturday‘s editions.

”You don‘t do heroin with your children. Period,” lead prosecutor Mitch Poe said during closing arguments.

Clair, 49, buried her face in her hands when the verdict was read and later hugged her family and sobbed before she was taken into the custody of sheriff‘s deputies. Clair had been free on bail pending the outcome of the case.

The punishment phase of the trial begins Tuesday. Clair faces from two to 20 years in prison, but is also eligible for probation because she has

no previous felony convictions.

According to court testimony, Clair, her daughter, Tiffany, and a friend, Bradley Waltermire, shot up heroin at her Everman apartment on May 3,

2001.

Authorities said Waltermire went home later but then called Clair and asked her to come get him because his girlfriend had thrown him out.

Clair told Waltermire that she could not wake up Tiffany, who was asleep or passed out on the couch, but left anyway. When they returned, Tiffany was dead, lying on the floor by the front door with the phone off the hook, according to testimony.