EX-GIRLFRIEND: CRACK COCAINE TURNED GOOD MAN BAD

Heather Helms Says Drugs Changed David Horne, Who Was Killed by Police
While Holding Her Son Hostage

Friends described David Horne during his funeral services as a considerate,
sweet-natured man who led "an exemplary life."

Ex-girlfriend Heather Helms, whose son Horne held at knife point Friday
while under the influence of crack cocaine, said the friends spoke the
truth. But crack, she said, had begun to destroy him.

Mobile police killed Horne, 27, and freed Heather Helms' 2-year-old son,
Noah. Horne had kept mother and son hostage for about eight hours, police said.

Horne was holding a knife to the boy in a threatening manner and smoking
crack, police Chief Sam Cochran said. Three officers fired five bullets at
Horne, with three of the bullets hitting and killing him, Cochran said.

"I know he would have never hurt Noah under any other circumstance. He
would have never done that," Helms said this week at a friend's west Mobile
home following the funeral. "We would have never been in that situation if
crack had not been involved."

Police confronted Horne when they responded to a domestic dispute at his
home on Autumn Ridge Drive in west Mobile early Friday morning. Helms, 28,
had summoned officers after escaping about 2 a.m.

Cochran said Horne did not have a police record, but officers had been
dispatched to the home at least four times during the last two months to
quell fights between him and Helms.

Noah was taken to the Department of Human Resources for safe-keeping. His
mother said family members plan to care for him.

Helms suffered minor cuts, scrapes and bruises, including a cut on her
neck, but she did not require hospitalization, police said.

Neighbors of the slain man said he once worked as a coach at a private
school and taught youth soccer.

A secretary at St. Mark's United Methodist School on Azalea Road confirmed
that Horne had worked there in the past. She would not, however, say what
Horne's position had been, and she would not identify herself.

At Azalea Road at St. Luke's Episcopal School, a secretary said Friday that
Horne was involved in the school's youth organization sports programs
"about four years ago, but he was never employed by the school."

About 150 people attended the Monday funeral services for Horne at Radney
Funeral home on Dauphin Street. Several young girls at the funeral wore
soccer uniforms and other children wore school uniforms.

A long line of speakers praised Horne for his work with youths.

But one speaker mentioned "the wicked influence that brought us here," and
another said an "unspeakable horror" had overtaken Horne.

If he could, Horne would say, "save the children, make a difference where
you can ... and turn to Jesus for guidance," one speaker said.

The downward spiral:

Travis Downing, 25, of Gulf Shores said Tuesday that he and Horne had been
best friends since 1996.

Downing said Horne taught physical education at St. Mark's for two years
but had either lost his job or quit in January, which would have been the
month after Helms said she and Horne began using crack. Horne also had
coached for the Mobile Soccer Club, Downing said.

Horne, according to Downing, was such a good person that Downing had named
him as his daughter's godfather. The men worked out together, and Horne had
been in excellent health, he said.

Then last year, according to Downing, Horne began dating Helms and using
drugs. He said Horne eventually dropped from 160 pounds to 118 pounds and
cut himself off from his friends.

"When this all started, he was in the best shape of his life," Downing
said. "When he met Heather, he went downhill."

Downing described his reaction to Horne being killed as "total disbelief."

"He was kind, generous. If you knew David, you automatically loved him. He
was great with kids," Downing said. "He loved Noah to death, he would not
have hurt that baby for anything in the world."

Helms said she realizes some of Horne's friends and family members blame
her for his downfall, but that isn't a fair assessment of their relationship.

"I understand everything they feel about David and who David was to them,
and I feel the same way," Helms said.

She said, in her opinion, "David would have never done this if it wasn't
for the crack. It's such a strong substance that people can't understand
what it does. It's powerful."

Helms said she and Horne had smoked marijuana and tried powder cocaine
before December, when they switched to the more addictive crack.

According to Helms, a registered nurse, she had dated Horne off and on
since May 2001. She said, they never lived together, but she often spent
the night at his home.

Once they started smoking crack, the drug "consumed us," she said. "We
didn't know how to get out of it ourselves.

"Nobody knew because we didn't openly tell all our friends we were sitting
around doing crack, we were ashamed of that. We had talked about how this
was ruining us, and we had isolated ourselves."

Last Thursday, according to Helms' account, Horne awoke from a nap at about
6 p.m. and began smoking crack, getting her to join in.

Horne, said Helms, then began accusing her of sleeping with his friends and
plotting to have him arrested for drugs. She said he struck her with his
fists and cut her with the short folding knife he later used to threaten
Noah before police killed him.

"This went on for awhile, then finally he grabbed me around the neck and
dragged me to a back room," Helms said.

Helms suffered minor cuts, scrapes and bruises, but she did not require
hospitalization, Cochran said.

Police said the folding knife had a blade 3 to 4 inches long. Helms said
Horne had placed a butcher knife and some other kind of knife on a bed, and
she feared for her life and for her son's life. Police confirmed they had
found the other knives on the bed.

Helms said she believes that the crack cocaine pushed Horne over the edge:
"He obviously was not in his right mind, that was not David," she said.

Addiction hard to defeat:

Phillip Drane, executive director of The Shoulder, a drug and alcohol
rehabilitation center on the Causeway, said Helms' account sounds familiar.

"Crack is probably the most common drug problem that we see, probably the
most common drug used," Drane said. "The story we hear over and over is
when you smoke that first rock (of crack), it's a high that surpasses
anything, including sexual orgasms or any victory of an athlete.

"But they also say is it doesn't last. Crack addicts are always trying to
achieve the same effect of that first high, but they never achieve it.

"The depression gets greater and greater and you get lower and lower. So
they think that if that first rock got me that unbelievable high, so maybe
I should do two now. ... It's just a vicious cycle."

Said Dr. Christopher Jenkins of Recovery Medical of Mobile: "Heavy cocaine
use causes very profound depression after the binge. The depression only
lasts a few days. Patients will be desperate for treatment for two or three
days when they are feeling bad. But when they are feeling better, they
don't think they need further treatment. Then it's, 'Thank you doctor --
goodbye.'"

A cocaine addict or abuser needs about three months of treatment at a
rehabilitation center to have a chance to escape the drug, Jenkins said.
"But it can work, if the patient follows through."

When told that police said Horne smoked crack while he held the knife to
Noah, Drane said he was not surprised.

" He needed it. He was panicking, having that depression -- I'm assuming,"
Drane said. "He had to have something to get him back up there to deal with
the situation."