CLUB-DRUG SUPPLIER GUILTY

Jury Finds GDL Dealer Caused Death Of Friend At House

TAMPA - Prosecutors always said that Russell John Nestor killed his friend,
23-year-old Paul Kniep, with a fatal dose of a date-rape drug just as
surely as if he had put a gun to his head.

Tuesday, a U.S. District Court jury agreed. It convicted Nestor of causing
Kniep's death by supplying him with GBL, or gamma- butyrolactone, a new
drug that's marketed as an industrial floor cleaner. Nester faces a
possible life sentence.

"Nothing will ever bring Paul back," said Kniep's grandfather, Bob Kniep.
"The only night he never came home was the night he was murdered."

It was an unusual case, one that offered a rare glimpse into the lives of
young partygoers and drug users. It also explored an untested area of
federal law since defense lawyers argued that GBL was not an illegal drug.

"At times if felt like you were watching 'The Jerry Springer Show,' " said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Murphy-Davis. "At other times it felt like
a chemists symposium."

Tampa police and federal agents began investigating Nestor in February
2001, suspecting him of supplying GBL to Ybor City clubgoers and friends
who partied at his house at 402 W. Violet St.

Murphy-Davis said Nester bragged he was supplying half of Tampa with the drug.

Authorities got a search warrant, but before the search could be conducted,
Kniep was found dead outside Nestor's house.

Nestor's roommates admitted helping him carry Kniep's body from the living
room to his car before calling 911. Authorities found 9.8 gallons of GBL in
Nestor's van outside his house, Murphy-Davis said.

Detta Sue Spence, one of Nestor's roommates, said she saw Nester pouring
GBL into a cup for Kniep from a bottle of the drug he kept in the living
room. It was the last time she saw Kniep alive.

When police searched the house they found videotapes of drug parties that
had been shot and narrated by Nestor. One video shows an unconscious, naked
woman. Nestor is heard encouraging others to have sex with her, court
documents state.

Murphy-Davis said Nestor got some sick pleasure from watching people, high
on GBL, crawl on the floor and urinate on themselves in a drug- induced stupor.

Another woman testified she passed out after taking GBL at Nestor's house.
When she woke up, she said, Nestor was fondling her. She quickly got
dressed and left.

Prosecutors charged Nestor with distributing GBL with the intent to commit
sexual assault. But jurors found Nestor innocent of that charge. One key
part of that charge was in dispute. The woman testified she willingly took
the GBL. The law mandates she had to have taken the drug without her knowledge.

The jury convicted Nestor of the three other charges: conspiracy,
possession with intent to distribute GBL, and causing Kniep's death by
giving him GBL.

GBL is not a controlled substance, but prosecutors say it is nearly
indistinguishable from the date-rape drug GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyric acid.

Nestor's attorney, Robert Nutter, argued the two drugs do not have similar
chemical structure. His two chemistry and forensic experts agreed.

But the jury believed the testimony from government experts, including a
leading national researcher of the effects of GBL, who said the two drugs
are essentially the same. GBL is converted into GHB when it is ingested in
the human body.