HEROIN'S FATAL TRAIL FOLLOWED AT TRIAL

Is James Rouleau a drug dealer who supplied his friend with the heroin that
killed him?

Or is the 20-year-old Rouleau, ``Ziggy'' to his friends, a drug abuser
snagged as a scapegoat in a crackdown on a burgeoning heroin trade?

The answer will determine whether Rouleau, now standing trial for murder in
his friend's death, spends the rest of his life behind bars.

Rouleau was arrested last summer by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's
Office, one of three people charged with first-degree murder - in unrelated
incidents - for allegedly supplying heroin to people who suffered fatal
overdoses.

Sheriff's officials said Rouleau gave his friend, Ricky Shouse, 22, heroin
in April 1999. Rouleau and Shouse, who worked together at a Brandon seafood
restaurant, used the heroin along with Shouse's teenage sister. Just hours
later, Shouse was dead in his Valrico trailer.

Prosecutors and sheriff's officials said they charged Rouleau and the other
alleged suppliers with first-degree murder - a highly unusual move - in an
effort to combat a rise in heroin overdoses.

In opening statements to a Hillsborough County jury Monday, Assistant State
Attorney Robin Fuson said Rouleau bought the heroin from Brandon teenager
Kevin Sosa, kept some for himself and resold the rest.

Rouleau, seated at the defense table, shook his head as Fuson described him
as a drug dealer.

Sosa wasn't charged with murder because the state law on overdose deaths
applies only to suppliers 18 years or older.

Sosa, then 17, was charged with possession and delivery of heroin. The
status of those charges wasn't available Monday.

``I think you'll find the theme in this case is that the police were looking
for a scapegoat,'' said John Hooker, a Tampa lawyer representing Rouleau.

Rouleau's mother said outside the courtroom that her son was ``a drug
abuser,'' not a drug dealer. Barbara Sidoti said tearfully that prosecutors
targeted the wrong person.

Nicole Shouse, 18, told jurors that she, Ricky Shouse, and Rouleau used
heroin together.

Nicole Shouse said she and her brother became physically sick after snorting
the heroin, which she said Rouleau brought with him in a pillbox. Her
brother eventually stopped breathing.

Fuson said the heroin was so pure it could be inhaled rather than injected.

Jurors also heard a tape-recorded statement given by Rouleau after Shouse's
death.

Questioned by detectives, Rouleau said he had distributed drugs for Sosa
previously.

As he listened to his voice in the quiet courtroom, Rouleau wiped at his
eyes and nose.

At the end of the interview, Rouleau was asked if he had anything else to
say. He told the detectives that he would help them find the drug suppliers.

``I didn't want my friend to die,'' he said.

The trial resumes today.