Monday, March 21, 2005

Help Us Prosecute a GHB Murderer!

In less than two weeks, the statute of limitations for prosecuting the murderer of Brian Gillis will run out without the DA ever taking on the case. Why? Because it's a tough case to prosecute. What kind of excuse is that?

Brian Gillis was murdered when he was given the drug gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) at a party. Brian probably didn't even know the bottle of Gatoraide he was given at a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo frat party had GHB in it. Witnesses have testified that this was a deliberate act.

But SLO County DA Gerald Shea has refused to prosecute the case, perhaps because he runs on his 98 percent conviction rate and this might be a hard case to win.

He should take the risk of losing a case and prosecute the Gillis murder agressively because someone needs to prosecute a case like this to establish a way to prosecute the growing trend of using GHB as a murder weapon.

There are many other cases of murder or manslaughter by GHB, none of which have been prosecuted. One was a 17-year-old girl, Hillory Farias, who had never had a date, who never had an alcoholic drink. Someone put GHB in her soft drink. Another, Kyle Hagmann, was an A student at a Lutheran university when a boy staying in his dorm room put GHB in Kyle's drinking, hoping to knock him out, but killing him. Jackie O'Donnell was murdered when someone put it in her Jolt soda can. The third is a Florida case in which it is evident that a husband murdered his wife with GHB. There are no doubt numerous others. For more cases, see Project GHB.

All you have to do to help is forward this post to DA Shea's Assistant, Michelle Goula, by clicking on the little envelope below, and pasting in this e-mail address: mgoula@co.slo.ca.us. Please add a polite request urging Shea to prosecute the case. Your help in linking this post to other blogs will also be greatly appreciated.

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