Judge reverses homicide ruling

A Spokane woman who was to have been sentenced today for delivering the drugs that killed her husband has had her conviction overturned by her trial judge.

Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza granted a defense motion Wednesday to overturn last month’s jury verdict that Christine Dana Weber, 28, was guilty of controlled-substance homicide.

Cozza agreed with Assistant Public Defender Mark Hannibal that the evidence failed to prove that the heroin and cocaine Weber gave her husband, James Weber, was responsible for his death in February 2004.

Testimony indicated that Christine Weber brought heroin and cocaine to her husband and his roommate, Michael Stancil, at James Weber’s request, on a Sunday evening and that they shared the drugs. James Weber was found dead some 36 hours later on a Tuesday morning.

Christine Weber, who was living apart from her husband, had gone to Seattle when his body was found in his apartment at 624 E. Columbia.

An autopsy showed James Weber died of drug poisoning. In addition to cocaine and morphine – which human metabolism creates from heroin – the autopsy found three prescription drugs in Weber’s body: a painkiller, a sleeping aid and possibly lethal levels of an antidepressant.

Cozza said the evidence failed to determine the time of James Weber’s death or to account for his whereabouts in the day and a half after his wife injected him with heroin.

But testimony did show that, within a few weeks of his death, James Weber had two previous overdoses – at least one of which was a suicide attempt, the judge noted.

“I felt that the evidence didn’t lead to a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that those particular drugs that she gave him caused him to expire,” Cozza said.

According to Deputy Prosecutor Mark Laiminger, Christine Weber could have been sentenced to 41/4 to 52/3 years in prison. Laiminger may appeal Cozza’s ruling.