FAMILY DEMANDS LIFE IN HEROIN DEATH

BRENTWOOD - With a heavy thud, Gayle Brady placed the urn holding her
daughter's ashes on the table in front of prosecutors yesterday
afternoon, and turned to the young man convicted of giving her a
lethal dose of heroin.

"That's Caitlyn," Gayle Brady said, before demanding Dante Silva, 22,
of Newton, turn to look at her when she addressed the court.

Silva, who was convicted on one felony count of dispensing a
controlled drug with a death resulting earlier this spring, did not
turn. Silva was in court yesterday for sentencing, facing a maximum
of life in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 18 years
-- a sentence recommended by both prosecutors and the Rockingham
County probation office. Silva's attorney argued for counseling and
rehabilitation, with the threat of a deferred heavy prison sentence.

Brady was 18 and had been dating Silva for several years when she
died on March 15 of last year from a heroin overdose.

In court yesterday afternoon, conflicting versions of how Brady died
and what should be done about it emerged during the emotional
three-hour hearing that featured tearful and angry statements from
both the Brady and Silva families, and passionate and sometimes
pointed sparring between prosecutors and defense attorney Mark Sisti.

According to deputy Rockingham County attorney Tom Reid and Brady's
family, she was a naive 18-year-old stuck in an abusive relationship
with Silva, a longtime heroin user who had overdosed a year before
Brady's death. Family said Brady was aware that Silva was "bad for
her" but had a caring nature that led her to think she could help him
with his troubles.

"I love Dante, I wish I didn't," Brady wrote in her diary at one
point, her mother said in court yesterday.

"You're lucky because you had friends who cared about you," Gayle
Brady told Silva, referring to his earlier overdose. "I wish you had
died then, because Caitlyn would be alive today."

Family members said Brady never did hard drugs and that it was Silva
who introduced her. Reid argued that Brady could not have injected
herself with the lethal dose of heroin, which he described as
massive, and said the teen did not have a history of drug use. Reid
said Silva gave Brady a large dose, and after seeing her go into a
coma, collected his paraphernalia and discarded it in a Dumpster
instead of calling for help. It took six hours for Brady to die, Reid
said, and at any point Silva could've called for help to save her.

Brady's father asked Nadeau to give Silva the maximum sentence for
the crime -- life in prison.

"Your honor, if there is any kind of justice in this state, I want to
see him get life," James Brady said.

Reid said the sentence was appropriate because Silva had failed
several previous attempts to kick the heroin habit, and had a number
of previous run-ins with the law -- including an arrest for driving
under the influence and heroin possession two months after Brady's death.

Though Silva sat quietly in court, declining to speak on his own
behalf, his attorney, Sisti fought back. Hinting that the case might
be appealed to a higher level, Sisti said he thought the state and
federal constitution did not necessarily uphold Silva's conviction.

In Sisti's telling of Brady's death, it was an entirely accidental
death and there was no evidence that Silva caused it by injecting her
or was aware she was dying when he left her to dispose of his
paraphernalia. Sisti said as a defense attorney he represents
high-level drug dealers who are responsible for distributing large
amounts of drugs and probably should receive "outrageous amounts of
time" in prison for their crimes, but Silva is not one of those
people. Sisti described Silva as a "couple bag-a-day idiot who can't
get off it."

Jay Simes, the man who sold Silva the lethal dose of heroin, and a
second man who drove Simes to Massachusetts to purchase it, have been
indicted on related charges and their cases are still pending, but
Sisti also alluded to sealed documents, suggesting there may be other
higher level dealers who could be charged in the case.

"What will you do when and if they arrest those in county who make a
living supplying this poison to the kids?" Sisti asked. "The dealer
walks and the user has to go to prison for life?"

Sisti also called a witness, Andrew DesCoteaux, of Plaistow,
currently a prisoner at the county jail, who arrived in shackles and
testified that Brady was a regular drug user. DesCoteaux, who
described himself as a lifelong friend of Silva's and a "recovering
addict," said Brady had started taking heroin a month before her
death and injected herself on numerous occasions and even encouraged
the other two to use.

Reid later ripped DesCoteaux's credibility, pointing out he allegedly
assaulted his girlfriend and had been convicted of theft by deception.

Judge Nadeau said she would study the handful of similar earlier
cases and would hold another hearing next week to announce her decision.