JURY CONVICTS MAN IN OXYCONTIN DEATH

Mendenhall Girl, 15, Died After Being Injected With Painkiller

A Mendenhall man was found guilty Wednesday, marking the first negligent
manslaughter conviction in the nation involving the prescription painkiller
OxyContin.

A Simpson County Circuit Court jury deliberated 2 hours and 15 minutes
before returning the verdict against Shad Edward Nichols shortly after 6
p.m., said District Attorney Eddie Bowen.

"What he did to the 15-year-old girl that died convinced the jury of his
guilt," Bowen said, referring to Jennifer May's Nov. 28, 2000, death.

Nichols, 30, of Mendenhall, was found guilty of fatally injecting May at
his home. May, a popular 10th-grader at Mendenhall High, was the first and
youngest person in the state to die of an OxyContin overdose.

Nichols faces up to 20 years behind bars, Bowen said. Nichols' lawyer
Daniel Ware could not be reached.

May's mother, Debra May, 44, a self-described addict, gave syringes to
Nichols the same day her daughter died. She blamed herself for her youngest
daughter's death.

"They weren't the needles used," Bowen said. "The marks on her body were
too large to be the insulin needles she gave Nichols."

The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics plans to ask the Legislature to pass a
law to punish a person for illegally giving drugs to another person, said
Tim Rutledge, the head of the MBN's pharmaceutical diversion unit.

"It's such a good drug for the pain of cancer patients," he said, "but I
want to see more doctors write less of it."

Assistant District Attorney Wendell James said the conviction is
bittersweet. "She was a very pretty and smart girl," James said. "The fact
everybody there when she was dying was using drugs is sad."