TAKING A DOSE OF DEATH

It must have seemed harmless enough. After all, she was their friend - a
nursing student. She worked in a pharmacy.

Surely she knew what she was doing when she handed out the pills. Surely
she wouldn't give them anything dangerous.

Five college-age kids were at the party. At least four took the pills and
three became violently ill. One died.

While the nursing student - who admitted taking 100-mg. morphine pills from
the pharmacy where she worked - faces a slew of charges for stealing the
medication and giving it out that night, the mother of the young man who
died thinks Amanda Karn got away with murder.

The circumstances

Patty Cavallaro said her son, Rosario Cavallaro III, known as Rossy, moved
to Wilmington with a friend in January 2001 from their home in Corning, N.Y.

He had turned 21 on Jan. 1, 2001, and college in New York hadn't worked out
for him. Rossy, a healthy, energetic young man who was close to his family,
worked two jobs in New York and drove his 8-year-old sister to school every
morning before he moved to North Carolina.

Someone in Rossy's family or circle of friends came to visit him in
Wilmington every month he lived here, Mrs. Cavallaro said.

On May 15 of last year, Rossy called his mother and said he would be coming
home soon to Corning to see his little brother play baseball.

That night, Rossy and his roommate, Aaron Powell, a 23-year-old student at
the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and friends Kevin Kellum,
24, Emily Carr, 21, and Miss Karn gathered at Mill Creek Apartments for a
small party.

While it's not clear who did what, law enforcement investigators uncovered
evidence that the group's partying included drinking alcohol, smoking
marijuana and inhaling nitrous oxide.

And at least four of them took the time-release morphine tablets called MS
Contin that Miss Karn stole.

It is unclear whether Miss Karn took a pill herself.

As the party slid into the morning of the 16th, Mr. Powell, Mr. Kellum, and
Ms. Carr threw up violently, and Mr. Cavallaro passed out on the sofa.

The next morning, the group realized that Rossy was dead.

Cause of death

It was May when Rossy died, but it wasn't until August that reports came
back showing what killed him.

Mrs. Cavallaro said Rossy had a low level of alcohol in his system, but
that it was the morphine tablet - especially in combination with alcohol -
that killed him.

Mrs. Cavallaro said a toxicologist told her that if the others who took the
pills hadn't vomited, they would likely have died, too.

"I don't think they realize the dangers of these pills - these little tiny
blue pills," Mrs. Cavallaro said. She said Ms. Carr told her that she knew
what the pill was that night, but one of the young men said he didn't.

Mrs. Cavallaro has since learned that her son experimented with the trendy
club drug Ecstasy, but she is still certain that if her son had known the
risks of taking MS Contin, he wouldn't have taken it.

"He took a pill and he made a mistake and it cost him his life," Mrs.
Cavallaro said. "I want people to be aware that this is dangerous and it
can kill you."

MS Contin is used for people in extreme pain and who have developed a
tolerance to lower doses of morphine. Doctors are advised to start patients
on lower doses.

Mrs. Cavallaro said her nephew died of cancer May 5 and that he had been
taking 60-mg. tablets of time-release morphine.

The Physicians' Desk Reference advises that morphine - in any quantity -
shouldn't be taken with alcohol or other depressants because of the
cumulative effects, including central nervous system depression, that may
occur.

Who's responsible?

Mrs. Cavallaro believes Miss Karn is criminally responsible, and she may
sue the pharmacy where Miss Karn worked because she was able to access the
deadly pills.

"It's just like a drunk driver - they don't mean to go out and kill
anybody, but it happens," she said.

Mrs. Cavallaro has news articles showing that other prosecutors have
charged people in the deaths of those to whom they've administered lethal
drugs. Even bartenders who over-serve a drunken person who later dies bear
some criminal responsibility, and they're just doing their jobs.

"What I don't understand is that almost exactly the same thing happened in
Florida, and those two got charged with manslaughter," she said.

District Attorney John Carriker and his assistant prosecutors have decided
not to charge Miss Karn with any crime in connection with the death. She is
charged only with stealing the pills and giving them out.

"At this time there is not a basis for charging (in the death), and Phyllis
(Assistant District Attorney Phyllis Gorham) has spent a good bit of time
on this case, working with the officers," Mr. Carriker said, but he
declined to explain the decision further because Miss Karn's other charges
are pending.

Sgt. Jeff Allsbrook of City-County Vice and Narcotics, which investigated
the drug charges, offered that a jury is unlikely to convict a defendant
when the victim willingly took the drugs.

Vice Detective Craig Gore added, "There should be some type of punishment
for people passing out drugs that people die from. Right now, there's not."

But several local lawyers have said there is a clear case for manslaughter,
if not second-degree murder, against Miss Karn.

First-degree murder requires elements such as a deadly weapon, malice and
premeditation.

But according to the North Carolina General Statute on first-degree murder:
All other kinds of murder, including that which shall be proximately caused
by the unlawful distribution of opium or any other synthetic or natural
salt, compound, derivative, or preparation of opium, or cocaine . when the
ingestion of such substance causes the death of the user, shall be deemed
murder in the second degree.

Second-degree usually requires malice, but a lesser charge of voluntary
manslaughter does not.

Then there's involuntary manslaughter, which requires "conduct in such a
reckless manner as to show a thoughtless disregard for the consequences or
a heedless indifference to the rights and safety of others."

"I guess I don't understand why (charges) weren't pursued," Mrs. Cavallaro
said. "I don't exactly know what law needs to be changed."

Sgt. Allsbrook said, "I would like to see - if you are selling and
delivering drugs - I would like to see death aggravate the drug charges"
and result in heavier punishment.

Mrs. Cavallaro doesn't feel like the felony drug charges, even if they
carry substantial prison time, are enough to make up for her son's death.

Attorney Thom Goolsby, who is representing all of the 20-somethings at the
party that night, said he has no comment on the possibility of a murder
charge, but he said all of his clients are remorseful and distraught over
Rossy's death, and that none of them has tried to justify his actions.

Mr. Goolsby added that Miss Karn has never been in trouble before and "this
was something - like Rossy's mother said - just a little pill and nobody
thought it could have done so much harm."