THREE FOUND GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER IN GHB POISON CASE

DETROIT (AP)--Three young men were convicted of involuntary manslaughter
Tuesday in the drug death of a 15-year-old girl. A fourth was convicted of a
lesser charge.

Jurors in one of the nation's first trials involving a death linked to the
so-called "date-rape drug" GHB also found Joshua Cole, 19, Daniel Brayman,
18, and Nicholas Holtschlag, 18, guilty of lesser poisoning charges.

A fourth defendant, Erick Limmer, 26, was found guilty of one count each of
being an accessory to manslaughter, poisoning, delivery of marijuana and
possession of GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate.

The manslaughter conviction carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
The penalty for the poisoning convictions wasn't immediately clear.

Prosecutors alleged the men gave Samantha Reid a soft drink secretly spiked
with GHB during a Jan. 16, 1999, party at Limmer's Grosse Ile apartment.
Reid died the next day. A friend of hers also ingested the drug and was
briefly in a coma, but survived.

Cole's case was heard by a separate jury because authorities said he
confessed. The Southgate resident's jury began deliberations March 7, and
the jury for his three co-defendants began Friday.

The jury for Holtschlag, of Wayne County's Brownstown Township, Brayman, of
Trenton, and Limmer reached its verdict shortly before noon Monday, and the
judge sealed it until Cole's jury reached its verdict Tuesday.

GHB is a colorless and odorless drug that can make a victim unconscious
within 20 minutes. Victims frequently have no memory of what happened and
the drug is difficult to trace, often leaving the body within 24 hours.

It has been linked to at least 58 deaths since 1990 and more than 5,700
recorded overdoses, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. In
1990, the FDA banned GHB for public sale, and a 1998 Michigan law made
possessing the drug a felony.

U.S. President Bill Clinton last month signed legislation toughening federal
laws against possessing, making or distributing GHB.