JUDGE SAYS NO TO DELAY IN HEROIN DEATH CASE

The trial for Robert Steed, accused of providing the heroin that
killed Elise Schnitzler last spring, got under way Monday despite the
adamant opposition of the defense, which insisted that a delay was needed.

Defense attorney Yolanda Lehner argued before jury selection began
that she could not adequately represent Steed if the trial went ahead
as scheduled this week, saying she has not had enough time to review
all the evidence in the case. Steed also asked that the trial be delayed.

Assistant District Attorney Karie Cattanach said the request for the
delay was a ploy by Steed to delay the trial. And Attorney David
Knoll, who represents one of the key witnesses in the case, Kellie
Prager, said his client feared a delay in the trial more than she did
the prospect of testifying.

Dane County Circuit Judge Robert DeChambeau told Lehner that as far
back as December all involved were aware that the trial was scheduled
in the first week of April and that was plenty time to prepare.

After jurors were selected, Prager, 21, was among the first witnesses
called. The close friend of Schnitzler testified that she called
Steed and asked for a "favor for a favor," meaning she and Schnitzler
were willing to exchange sex for heroin. They went with Steed, 37, to
a Madison motel where both women injected heroin supplied by Steed
and then had sex with him, Prager testified.

The next morning Schnitzler was unresponsive, and Prager wanted to
call for an ambulance, but Steed would not let her, she said. Instead
they took Schnitzler back to the South Hamilton Street apartment,
just across the street from where this week's trial is being held.

At the apartment, Prager went in and got a syringe of Narcan, a drug
which is used to counteract the effects of heroin, and injected
Schnitzler, but it did not save her. Steed took off, warning Prager
not to tell anyone of his involvement and erasing his phone number
from her cell phone.

When authorities were called and arrived at the scene, Schnitzler was
dead. Prager was also charged with delivery of heroin in the case,
and she is scheduled to face a hearing Thursday in her case.

Prager knew Steed only by his street name of "Pooh," but police were
eventually able to track him down. Rather than arrest him
immediately, they set up a series of drug buys from him, and he was
eventually charged with first-degree reckless homicide in
Schnitzler's death, two counts of selling heroin after her death to
other people, and one count of selling phony drugs.

One of the people police used to set up Steed was a man convicted in
1993 of causing the death of a 25-year-old Iowa County woman in a
similar drug transaction.

The trial is expected to last through the week.