OVERDOSE WAS 3RD-DEGREE MURDER

TAMPA - A Riverview man, charged under a little-used law, is guilty
of third-degree murder in his friend's overdose death.

At the end - after seven hours of jury deliberations over two days -
the verdict was one sought by neither prosecution nor defense, yet one
that satisfied both.

James Rouleau, 20, was found guilty of third-degree murder Wednesday
for supplying his friend with the heroin that killed him. The crime
carries,a maximum prison term of 15 years, but both parties said they
expect a much lighter penalty when Rouleau is sentenced May 24.

Prosecutors had asked for first-degree murder, which would have sent
the Riverview man to prison for life. They had taken a law out of
mothballs to charge Rouleau in a crackdown on a more vigorous, and
more deadly, heroin trade.

Rouleau's attorney had called for acquittal, saying his client was a
"junkie" being made a scapegoat for Ricky Shouse's death.

"I thought it was a win for us said Tampa lawyer John D. Hooker. "He
was facing life in prison without a chance of parole."

Hillsborough County Assistant State Attorney Robin Fuson said the
outcome sends a message.

"I think what it says is that juries are going to consider holding
people responsible for providing narcotics to other people," he said.

As the verdict was read, Rouleau held his hands as if in prayer and
closed his eyes. About a dozen family and friends cried and consoled
each other.

Rouleau and Shouse, co-workers at a Brandon sea-food restaurant
snorted heroin in April 1999. Shouse, 22, died hours later in his
Valrico trailer.

Prosecutors said Rouleau, known to friends as "Ziggy," bought the
heroin from Brandon teenager Kevin Sosa, kept some and resold the rest.

Rouleau said he bought the heroin with Shouse, but was contradicted by
his taped statements to detectives.

Rouleau was prosecuted under a state law passed in the early 1970s in
response to a surge in heroin use. The law was seldom invoked until
the mid-1990s, when heroin use began climbing again. Last year, 20
deaths in Hillsborough involved heroin, records show. Rouleau is
believed to be the first person tried in Hillsborough under the law.

Two others were charged with first-degree murder last summer in
unrelated incidents for allegedly supplying heroin to people who
suffered fatal overdoses. Those cases are pending.

Hooker said prosecutors targeted his client out of frustration at
being unable to catch the real-drug distributors.

"I think that the statute is vague and it needs to be revisited by the
legislature so they can tell us specifically who they meant it to
apply to," he said.

Sosa, then 17, wasn't charged with murder because the law applies only
to those 18 or older. He was charged with heroin possession and delivery.

Fuson acknowledged that Rouleau wasn't a major drug dealer. He said
the state would have charged "everyone up the ladder" if it could have
proved that they supplied the fatal heroin.

That was cold comfort to Rouleau's mother.

"People that should be charged with this are still around somewhere,"
said Barbara Sidoti, "and I hope to God that someday they pay for what
they've done."