FAMILY SUFFERS AGONY OF ECSTASY

By the time Vacaville paramedics found Shawn Spontini on the lawn, it was
already too late.

The 17-year-old's body temperature had soared to 106.2 degrees. He was
unconscious and not breathing.

Witnesses said he vomited and had a seizure before collapsing at a friend's
Sunset Lane trailer house.

It was a classic case of acute MDMA intoxication -
Methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine is the chemical name for the designer drug
Ecstasy - but for Solano County health officials, it was the first fatal
overdose they had seen here.

Shawn's death on March 3, 2000, has left his family and friends reeling. The
Shawn they knew was a fun-loving kid who played the role of counselor to his
friends and enjoyed his car more than anything in the world.

The white 1992 Camaro with red rally stripes was a gift from his
grandmother. Shawn loved to drive fast, make the tires squeal and leave
behind skid marks in the empty parking lot at Boston Market after he got off
work at night.

"When he got the car, it was like 'Now I got all this power,' " said his
girlfriend Jamie Hurst, 21. "I think he liked the car more than he liked
me."

Despite some exasperating habits - such as his tendency to knock the balls
off the pool table and to spin doughnuts in his Camaro - friends say Shawn's
honesty and concern for other people endeared him to everyone he met.

"He was a good guy," said Lisa Steltz, 17. "He would just sit there and
listen to me forever."

And then there was his smile.

"He had that smile that lit up his whole face," said Jessica Pool, 17. "he
was just like a little kid. You just couldn't stay mad at him."

Friends say the smile is what they'll remember.

His dad has other memories.

Born three-and-a-half months premature, Shawn William Spontini II debuted at
a slight 3 pounds, 4 ounces on May 2, 1982.

"They gave him an 80 TO 20 chance of living," said his dad, who is also
named Shawn. "They said he was one hell of a fighter."

Shawn's zest for life makes it all the more difficult for family and friends
to comprehend his death. How could a drug they know so little about visit
such tragedy on their family?

"I had heard bits and pieces about it on TV," said Tari Essex, the teen's
great aunt. "But I had no idea how dangerous it was."

Ecstasy, a hybrid of the stimulant amphetamine and the hallucinogen
mescaline, is said to induce feelings of well-being, self-acceptance and
closeness to others. It also accelerates the heart and inhibits the body's
temperature-regulating system, which can lead to dehydration and
overheating.

Shawn's family members attended a seminar on the drug last month, hoping to
find some link between the teenager they knew and the mysterious drug that
took his life.

Vacaville police Det. Todd Dye's talk emphasized the sensation-enhancing
effects of Ecstasy. He said all-night dance parties called raves - held
mostly out of town - are the most popular places to use Ecstasy.

He pointed to symbols, music and clothing associated with the drug.
Butterflies, the letter E, pacifiers and listening to computer-generated
music are among the signs that a teenager might be experimenting with
Ecstasy, he said.

But Shawn's dad didn't recognize his son in any of the indicators Dye
discussed.

"I didn't see any of those signs whatsoever," the elder Spontini said.
"There was nothing like that in my house."

Shawn favored sports team logos on his clothes and he didn't listen to
electronic music.

Instead, he asked his dad to help him collect photographs of teenage pop
singer Britney Spears and drove his friends crazy by playing her songs over
and over again.

"This (Shawn's overdose) didn't happen at a rave," Essex said. "It happened
at someone's house."

Shawn's death was the final chapter in a series of tragedies in his life.

When he was 3, his mother moved to Minnesota. "She got married and kind of
started a new life," said Essex.

Since then, "It's just been me and him," said his dad, who manages a pizza
parlor in Fairfield.

In the year they were together, Hurst said Shawn's mother called only twice
and didn't talk to him either time. There were no birthday cards and visits
were sporadic, with years passing before they'd see each other, she said.

"His mother was just kind of an absentee in his life ... whereas his
grandmother was there," she said.

Shawn called his grandmother, Patricia Kalil, "mom."

Then, in January, Kalil, 58, was kicked in the head and killed by her horse.
Shawn's dad found her unconscious on the Leisure Town Road property they
shared.

"He loved his grandmother," said Hurst. "They were like friends. She lived
with them so that was a major loss to both of them."

His family insists Shawn showed no signs of severe strain or sadness after
Kalil's death.

But a month later, his dad was in a major accident that left him
hospitalized with several broken bones and head injuries after his car
smashed into the back end of a big-rig on Interstate 80.

Shawn offered to help pay the bills. "I'll make sure everything is taken
care of," he told his dad, pledging to work overtime - whatever it took to
keep their household afloat.

"All of that was on his shoulders," Hurst said.

Shawn quit Will C. Wood High School last fall at the beginning of his senior
year.

"He would not get up for school," said Hurst, adding that Shawn planned to
take a high school equivalency exam. "It was more of a necessity to work."

Unemployed for several months, Shawn was scheduled to fill out paper for his
new job as a pizza delivery person the day he died.

"He had to go in at 10 a.m.," said Hurst, who found no one home when she
went to pick Shawn up at the trailer that Friday morning.

She said she dropped him off the night before around 10 p.m. to hang out
with his friends, Kristopher Crannell and Jeremy Jennings in a Vacaville
mobile home park.

Cannell, 18 and Jennings, 19, were arrested after Shawn died in connection
with being under the influence of a narcotic and possession of drug
paraphernalia. They were later released. Crannell's mother, Jackie Ann
Crannell, was also arrested and is facing trial on charges of child
endangerment and maintaining a residence where illegal drugs were being
used.

"He normally hung out over there," said Hurst. "A lot of Shawn's friends
would stop by the trailer."

Spontini's father was recovering at VacaValley Hospital when he received
word of his son's death.

"They brought him in to the emergency room," said Spontini. "I guess they
couldn't revive him."

Shawn and his dad had talked openly about drugs - but never about Ecstasy.

"I could maybe see my son trying something," he said, but his son showed no
signs of drug abuse.

Hurst said that when she and Shawn first started dating a year ago, they
talked about the drug.

"We discussed it," she said. "I knew he had tried (Ecstasy) but I was very
against drugs so he wouldn't discuss that too much with me. I talked to his
friends and they'd tell me he did it and I just didn't know about it. It
seems like there's a bunch of stuff he didn't tell me."

One Vacaville teenager said she partied with Shawn a couple of times and he
appeared enamored with Ecstasy.

"He'd always be talking about how he does hella E," said the 18-year-old who
asked not to be identified. "He really seemed like he was into the drug. He
seemed like a nice kid. The drug just got the best of him."