HOUMA -- A 43-year-old Houma woman is charged with murder after the prescription methadone pills that she allegedly gave her 21-year-old boyfriend Sunday caused a fatal overdose.

WWL-TV

Patti Thomas, 305 Jefferson Drive, was booked for second-degree murder shortly after noon Monday, police said.

She is accused of giving Devin Michael Smith, her 21-year-old live-in boyfriend, methadone pills from a prescription she was taking for stomach pains, according to Houma Police Lt. Todd Duplantis.

"She had several prescription medications, and methadone was one of them," Duplantis said.

Police were called to the house the couple shared on Jefferson Drive about 3:39 a.m. Sunday after Smith stopped breathing. Though officers began performing CPR and paramedics arrived to assist them, Smith died at the scene, police said.

Thomas allegedly admitted giving Smith the pills prior to his death.

Methadone, a narcotic, is a synthetic drug commonly prescribed to treat severe pain. Like other narcotics, methadone, also used to treat drug addiction, slows breathing and can trigger a fatal overdose. Across the country, fatal overdoses involving methadone increased 390 percent from 1999, when there 786 reported, to 2004, when there were 3,849, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Detectives do not suspect Thomas intended to kill Smith by giving him the pills. But, according to state law, murder charges are applicable "when the offender unlawfully distributes or dispenses a controlled-dangerous substance … which is the direct cause of the death of the recipient who ingested or consumed the controlled dangerous substance."

"There was no intent, however that’s what the law reads," Duplantis said.

Second-degree murder carries a sentence of mandatory life in prison without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

Thomas remains in the Terrebonne Parish jail in lieu of a $100,000 surety bond or a $10,000 cash bond.