ADULTS LET ERICA DOWN

As he sits in juvenile court, the 16-year-old defendant, accused of
second-degree murder in the drug overdose of his girlfriend Erica
Hicks, looks like a baby-faced innocent. His hair boasts a cowlick,
and if he's worn out a single razor in his life, I'd be surprised.

In truth, according to testimony presented throughout his trial, the
defendant is a character many of us recognize from high school and
college: The amoral drug dealer.

The guy who does drugs and sells drugs. The guy who seems to care
about his friends (or are they clients?) but mostly cares about
covering his own heiney.

Yep, the defendant is straight out of central casting.

The people who are harder to identify -- much less understand -- are
the adults in the courtroom. These are adults whose permissiveness,
or at best cluelessness, fueled a culture of drinking and drugs among
kids not old enough to drive.

There's the father of the defendant, who had to know his son was at
least doing drugs, if not dealing. His son had been busted for
possession at school; his room contained scales, drugs and paraphernalia.

This is the father whose girlfriend brought marijuana into their
home. I'm sure the defendant never picked up on that. (Yeah, right.)

There are the parents of Erica's best friend, a girl who shared drugs
with Erica and others during her father's 40th birthday party on the
day of Erica's death. The father is now apparently concerned that
testimony at the trial might reflect poorly on his mortgage and
insurance business.

Talk about watching out for one's own heiney.

But of course, the person whose role in all of this is most
perplexing is that of the woman who probably loved Erica best: her mother.

Kim Hicks admits that the day before Erica's death, she and Erica, as
well as the defendant, smoked pot together. According to Erica's
friends, her mother also handed out prescription Xanax and served alcohol.

Hicks denies that she ever shared her Xanax and says that she only
smoked marijuana with her daughter that one time. She testified that
she didn't know about her daughter's picture on MySpace.com -- with a bong.

Kim Hicks told me after Friday's court proceedings that she and her
daughter had had some bumpy times in the months before Erica's death.
Finally, she felt as if they were coming back together. As one of the
defendant's attorneys put it Friday, my heart goes out to Hicks.

But at the risk of sounding like parenting columnist John Rosemond, I
have to wonder if she wasn't trying too hard to be a friend when her
daughter really needed a parent.

The Wake County District Attorney's office makes the case that the
defendant (unnamed because he was 15 when charged) deserves to be
punished not only because he admitted giving Erica ecstasy, but he
also delayed getting help for fear of getting in trouble.

But at age 15, high on drugs himself, the amoral dealer was in a
panic, calling then hanging up on 911, running to a neighbor's, scurrying back.

So the teenaged drug dealer failed Erica Hicks. Big surprise.

What's the excuse for the adults?