MAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO HEROIN HOMICIDE

He allegedly admitted injecting Livonia woman, 21, at her request

One month after she received a degree in accounting from Rochester
Business Institute, Stefanie S. Baker visited the Portland Avenue
apartment of David J. Cardinell.

Cardinell, who has a history of misdemeanor drug arrests spanning two
decades, said he smoked cocaine with Baker and injected her with
heroin three times at her request.

By the next morning, she was dead of an overdose.

Now Cardinell faces a rare homicide charge.

Cardinell, 38, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Monroe County Court to
second-degree manslaughter in the death of Baker, 21, who was found
dead June 13 in the back seat of her car on Carter Street.

In a statement to homicide investigators, Cardinell allegedly said he
was sorry for what happened.

"For someone like Stefanie, who did not use heroin a lot, three
injections might have been a lot," he said.

The case against Cardinell is believed to be only the third in Monroe
County in which a defendant has been charged with homicide by causing
a person's fatal overdose.

The charge alleges that Cardinell recklessly caused Baker's death by
disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his conduct
could kill her.

"It's a fairly unusual charge, just by the nature of the facts and
circumstances," said Assistant District Attorney James Christie. "We
don't get a lot of these charges, thankfully, but when we do, we take
a very careful look at the circumstances."

Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. ordered Cardinell held in lieu of $50,000
cash bail or $100,000 bond after Christie said Cardinell has a
pending warrant for failing to show up in Drug Treatment Court, where
he was facing a drug charge at the time of Baker's death.

Six members of Baker's family attended Cardinell's arraignment but
declined to speak afterward.

Heroin kills by depressing the respiratory system, said Jean M.
Bidlack, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at the University
of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

New or infrequent users of heroin can be at greater risk of an
overdose than habitual users, Bidlack said.

"A novice user would be more susceptible to respiratory depression.
You can, with repeated use, become tolerant to the effect. It's like
patients who take morphine for pain; initially they need a low dose,
and eventually the dose has to be increased because they become
tolerant to it."

Cardinell told investigators in a signed statement that he was home
on the night of June 10 when Baker of Livonia, Livingston County,
showed up with a man she identified as her boyfriend. After the three
smoked crack cocaine that Baker and the man had brought, the other
man got angry and left with Baker's wallet, Cardinell said.

Cardinell said Baker asked him to go out to buy heroin. After he
bought two bags, Baker asked him three times to inject her with the
narcotic -- twice in a hand and once in an arm. Cardinell said he did.

The two fell asleep, and Cardinell said he awoke the morning of June
11 -- a Sunday -- to find that Baker had died. He said he panicked,
carried her to the back seat of her car and drove it to a parking lot
on Carter Street, where he placed the needle he used to inject her on
the seat next to her body so police would know the cause of death.

When police tracked down Cardinell on June 22, he claimed at first
that Baker had left his apartment after she injected herself.

After police confronted Cardinell with a videotape from a security
camera that showed him dropping off Baker's car on Carter Street, he
allegedly said, "I'll tell you what really happened," according to
court documents.

Police lacked evidence to arrest him until a forensic pathologist
confirmed that Baker died of a drug overdose. Cardinell was arrested
Sept. 19 when he left a drug rehabilitation program.

If convicted of manslaughter, Cardinell faces a sentence of up to
five to 15 years in prison. He's also charged with third-degree
criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance and
faces up to nine years behind bars, if convicted.

The criminal case is similar to those in two overdose deaths in the 1990s.

In 1992, Pittsford hotel executive Loren G. Ansley, 47, died of a
heroin overdose in a Greece apartment. Joseph P. Rubino, who admitted
injecting Ansley, was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and
sent to prison for five to 15 years. Rubino, now 45, was paroled in 2003.

In 1997, Kim A. Ferge, 27, died of a cocaine overdose in a Greece
apartment. Frank A. Caruso, who admitted feeding her cocaine, was
charged with second-degree manslaughter but pleaded guilty to
criminally negligent homicide, a lesser charge.

Caruso, now 56, was ordered to prison for one to three years. He was
paroled in 2000.