LAUGHING GAS SELLER GETS PRISON FOR TECH FATALITY

Ariz. Man Faces $40,000 Fine And 15 Months Behind Bars

A 20-year-old Virginia Tech student died of asphyxiation while using
laughing gas cartridges to get high.

David and Suzanne McCoy refused to look at the Arizona man they hold partly
responsible for the death of their 20-year-old son, Andy.

Lawrence Teiman, 37, faced the McCoys in federal court Monday and expressed
his regret in a quavering voice. Teiman was convicted last fall on five
counts of selling nitrous oxide as a drug. More commonly known as laughing
gas, nitrous oxide gets people high when they inhale it.

Teiman sold cartridges of nitrous oxide through his Web site, Bongmart.com
and distributed them from his store Shirts 'N' Things in Tempe, Ariz.
McCoy, a student at Virginia Tech, had ordered EZ Whip
cartridges, also known as "whippets," from Bongmart.com over the Internet.
He was found dead in his Blacksburg apartment in November 1999.

"I take full responsibility for what I have done," Teiman said at his
sentencing hearing. "I wish I could go back in time."

Suzanne McCoy pointed out in a statement she read prior to the sentencing
that last Mother's Day, it was five of Andy's friends, not her son, who
brought her cards at the family's home in Fairfax.

"No matter how much time Mr. Teiman spends in jail, whether it be two
years, two months, or two days, his children will be there to greet him
when he gets out," she said. "My son will never come home again."

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson sentenced Teiman to 15 months
incarceration and fined him $40,000. Teiman's conviction marked the first
prosecution of a defendant for selling nitrous oxide as a drug.

Prior to Teiman's sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig "Jake" Jacobsen
pointed out that trial evidence showed Teiman placed his largest order of
nitrous oxide cartridges after he had heard that someone in Virginia might
have been harmed by huffing nitrous oxide Teiman had sold.

But Teiman's attorney, Michael Bernays, argued that Teiman should not be
held solely to blame in Andy McCoy's death. McCoy was found with a plastic
bag over his head and a belt around his chest and he died of asphyxiation.

Bernays argued that Teiman could not have known how McCoy was going to use
the nitrous oxide.

Bernays also said that lots of stores where Teiman lives sell nitrous oxide
and other drug paraphernalia.

"In the milieu in which he existed, I think it's fair to say that this is
accepted behavior. That's not to say it's legal," Bernays said. He had
argued during the trial that Teiman was selling nitrous oxide for making
whipped cream as a sexual aid. He also said that the drug merchandise
Teiman was selling was for tobacco use only.

But Wilson dismissed that argument prior to sentencing Teiman.

"All that nonsense about bongs and pipes and not knowing what they were
using it for was more subterfuge," Wilson said.