TRIAL ORDERED IN HEROIN DEATH

Alleged Supplier Is Charged

A Madison man previously convicted for dealing drugs was ordered to
stand trial Monday in connection with the death in May of a young
Madison woman who died after taking heroin.

Robert Steed, 37, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide
for providing the heroin that allegedly killed Elise Schnitzler, 20, on May 17.

Although the prosecution put in no direct evidence of what killed
Schnitzler, testimony showed she died the morning after ingesting
heroin provided by Steed while Schnitzler and a friend, Kellie
Prager, were at an east side hotel the night before the death.

Prager, 21, testified she was at Schnitzler's South Hamilton Street
apartment on the night of May 16 when she called Steed and asked for
"a favor for a favor," meaning sex in exchange for heroin. She said
Steed came to the apartment, took the two women to the hotel, and
provided them with heroin, which the two women injected in the
bathroom. Prager said both women had sex with Steed that night and in
the morning she could not wake Schnitzler.

Prager, who was crying through much of her testimony and sobbed when
leaving the courtroom, said she tried to administer CPR to
Schnitzler, then wanted to call 911 but was unable to find
Schnitzler's cell phone. It turned out Steed had taken the phone.

She and Steed carried Schnitzler to the car and went back to the
Hamilton Street apartment and put her on the porch, and Prager then
injected her with Narcan, a drug used to counteract the effects of
heroin. A neighbor called 911, but Schnitzler was dead when
authorities arrived on the scene just across the Wilson-Hamilton
Street intersection from the new courthouse building.

Prager, who also faces charges in the case for delivery of cocaine,
only knew Steed by the street name "Pooh." But detectives were able
to determine Steed was the man who exchanged the heroin for sex, and
later set up two controlled buys of heroin from him. They used two
other people with ties to the Madison drug network, including one who
was previously convicted in Iowa County of first-degree reckless
homicide for providing drugs that killed a young woman there.

Francis Thompson called "Pooh" using a phone number provided by
detectives and met him at the Kollege Klub bar on Lake Street to set
up a deal for heroin. Thompson, convicted of homicide for providing
the drugs that killed Lisa Lutz, 25, in Iowa County in 1993, said
after meeting at the KK he and Pooh went to the nearby Walgreens
where he bought three grams of heroin for $350.

That purchase was after the death of Schnitzler, and Thompson said
"Pooh" told him he "didn't do nothing outside anymore," in explaining
why the deal occurred at Walgreens.

Thompson also said "Pooh" warned him to be careful using the heroin
because "people are dropping from it."

Also on the stand was Samuel Wright, who made two later buys of
heroin from Steed with money provided by detectives from a drug
investigation fund. After the buys by Wright, Steed was arrested and
charged with the homicide and three counts of delivery of heroin.

Assistant District Attorney Karie Cattanach argued that all the
crimes were transactionally related and that probable cause existed
to hold Steed for trial. Dane County Circuit Judge Michael Nowakowski agreed.