TRIAL IN METHADONE DEATH STARTS

Defense Says That Deceased Man, Not His Cousin, Was Responsible For
2005 Overdose

Waukesha - A man who supplied the methadone that contributed to the
2005 death of his cousin after a night of heavy drinking and drug use
should be found guilty of first-degree reckless homicide, a prosecutor
told a jury Tuesday, in a case in which the state's Len Bias law was
invoked to file the criminal charge.

In his opening statement, prosecutor Lloyd Carter said testimony will
show that Alton J. Davis got out a bottle of methadone and gave two
tablets to Daniel Bruner, 40, at Davis' former Waukesha home, causing
Bruner's death.

There will be testimony that shows Davis, 36, now of West Allis,
showed his wife, Racheal Davis, and his cousin Bruner the methadone
two days earlier and said he was selling it for $20 a tablet, Carter
said.

Davis, who had a prescription for methadone, even told authorities
after the death that he supplied the drug to Bruner, Carter said.

But Davis' attorney, Anthony D. Cotton, told jurors in his opening
remarks that Bruner, and no one else, was responsible for his death.

In fact, at one point during the night of drinking and smoking
marijuana, Bruner lunged across a table, snatched the bottle of
methadone and took two of the pills, Cotton said.

"Alton says, 'Dude, don't do that,' " Cotton told the
jurors.

Right after consuming the pills, Bruner vomited them up, sifted
through the vomit for the pills, put them in his mouth and washed them
down with beer, Cotton said.

Nobody forced the drug on Bruner, and Davis didn't deliver it, supply
it or sell it, which the prosecution must prove to support a
conviction in this case, Cotton said.

The Len Bias law enables authorities to prosecute people who supply
drugs that contribute to an overdose death. Many states enacted the
measure after the 1986 cocaine overdose death of Len Bias, a star
basketball player at the University of Maryland. Wisconsin's law was
enacted in 1989.

The trial began Tuesday afternoon before Waukesha County Circuit Judge
Lee S. Dreyfus Jr. Testimony resumes today.

The homicide charge was filed in April 2006 against Davis after an
inquest by the Waukesha County district attorney's office found
methadone was a key ingredient in a "poison cocktail," the mixing of
multiple psychotropic drugs, that led to Bruner's death.

Pathologists attributed Bruner's death to "multi-drug toxicity," after
alcohol, cocaine and methadone "among other things" were found in his
system during an autopsy, according to court records.

At first Davis denied giving Bruner the methadone but, in March 2005,
changed his story, telling investigators he brought his methadone
bottle from his bedroom to the kitchen where he and Bruner played
cards, drank and smoked marijuana. He said he gave Bruner two tablets
after Bruner asked what they were.

Racheal Davis is expected to testify that her husband gave Bruner the
drugs, Carter said.

But Cotton said Racheal Davis testified at an earlier court hearing
that Bruner grabbed the bottle and took the drugs himself.