CHALMETTE, La. – A St. Bernard couple has been sentenced to jail after they failed to call for help while a man was overdosing from heroin in their home.
Kristopher Howse, 24, was sentenced to four years in prison and his wife, Shelly Howse, received a two-year sentence on negligent homicide charges.
State District Judge Kirk Vaughn sentenced the couple, who have been jailed in Chalmette in lieu of bond since their arrests and will receive credit for time served.
According to trial documents, the victim, 24-year-old Chase Julian of Arabi, was taken to purchase heroin by Kristopher Howse the day of his death and that the Howses waited several hours to call for help when it was apparent that Julian was overdosing.
Chief Deputy Sheriff James Pohlmann said Julian began having problems around 7 p.m., and that Kristopher Howse phoned a friend who advised that he should try reviving Julian by putting him in an ice cold tub. Pohlmann said when that didn’t work he tried to perform CPR and even tried putting Julian in a car to search for an emergency room.
Pohlmann said Howse finally called 911 around 1 a.m.
“This was a case in which people who were afraid they were going to be arrested if they called for medical help when someone was overdosing allowed the person to die rather than get the help that could have saved him,” said Pohlmann. “When all is said and done the person dies and those who didn’t call for help end up being booked with negligent homicide. Clearly, people should get medical help for someone’ in such a situation.”
The arrest of the Howses was the second time in 2009 that a St. Bernard Parish resident was booked with negligent homicide for allowing someone to die rather than calling for help in a drug overdose situation. In the other case, the arrested man received the maximum five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty as charged.
Julian, the victim in the Howse case, had been arrested once on heroin charges in St. Bernard, according to Pohlmann. Kristopher Howse had one previous drug arrest involving Ecstasy and his wife didn’t have a prior criminal history.
