15-YEAR SENTENCE IN FATAL NARCOTICS OVERDOSE

A DuPage County judge gave Garrett Harth the maximum sentence of 15
years in prison in a pair of drug cases Monday, one of them linked to
the fatal overdose last year of an 18-year-old Naperville woman.

Calling Harth "a rider on the storm" of club drugs that has swept
into the area over the past few years, Judge Robert Anderson
sentenced Harth for selling cocaine in Naperville, and to five
concurrent years for possessing and providing Sara Aeschlimann with
the Ecstasy lookalike that killed her.

Anderson made a point to tell those gathered he was sentencing Harth,
21, for possession of controlled substances with the intent to
deliver them, but the Aeschlimann case clearly was considered an
aggravating factor in the harsh sentence for the first-time felon.

The judge sided with prosecutors who had pointed out that phone
records from Harth's Naperville home show he contacted his friends to
ask what he should do for a convulsing Aeschlimann before he called
for an ambulance.

Once he did contact emergency workers, he allegedly lied about
whether Aeschlimann had ingested any illicit substances with him at
the house--which altered her treatment.

Aeschlimann died May 14, 2000, Mother's Day, after ingesting several
pills of paramethoxyamphetamine, or PMA, a substance she may have
thought was Ecstasy. Prosecutors contend Harth may have boosted what
the teen took by slipping more of the pills into her drink in an
attempt to have sex with her, and he stands accused of manslaughter
in a separate case.

"He called his friends before he called for help," said the judge,
who found Harth guilty of the charges earlier this summer. "When he
did call for help he lied to the dispatcher, he lied to Sara's mother
and he lied to paramedics when they came."

In sentencing Harth, the judge also cited an audiotape that
prosecutors made while Harth was in the DuPage County Jail.

On the tape, which was not played in open court, the judge said Harth
can be heard bragging about selling drugs in the halls of Naperville
Central High School.

Harth is expected to serve half of the 15-year sentence and will
receive credit for more than a year he has already spent in jail.

The sentence was meted out after Aeschlimann's mother, Janice
Aeschlimann, read in court an emotional victim-impact statement
describing her last moments with her daughter as the teen died in
Edward Hospital.

"I watched as every organ in her body started to shut down,"
Aeschlimann said. "I watched as her beautiful brown eyes stared up
into space. ... I watched as a tear came down her cheek every time I
spoke to her."

Aeschlimann said her only child's death has left her life broken and
meaningless. She said she will enjoy no graduations with her
daughter, "no wedding, no grandchildren, no future."

Harth watched Aeschlimann read the statement, but sat stone-faced,
fidgeting with his fingers under the defense table.

Before he was sentenced, Harth read a brief statement of his own. He
said he "feels horrible" about Aeschlimann's death and is sad for her
family. "I can only imagine their pain," he said.

Assistant State's Atty. Joe Ruggiero had urged the judge to hold
Harth responsible for the choices he made. The defendant grew up in a
privileged setting, the prosecutor said, and had a chance to be a
productive person.

"Instead, he becomes a parasite," Ruggiero said, "and spreads poison
... and kills Sara Aeschlimann."

Defense attorney Dan Collins had asked the judge for a four-year
prison term. Collins pointed out that it was Harth who called for
help. He said Aeschlimann and Harth had paid for and used the drugs
together, and that neither of them knew they were using PMA and not
Ecstasy.

After the sentence was handed down, the Aeschlimann family called the
judge's decision fair.

Prosecutors pointed out that the case was a significant factor in the
toughening of laws against club drugs in Illinois.