Opinion ID: 4653353
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Offense and Trial

Text: On September 5, 2014, Frederick Schnettler was found dead in his bedroom from an apparent heroin overdose. Dr. Kristinza Giese, a medical examiner, performed an autopsy and ruled that the cause of death was “acute heroin toxicity.” Schnettler’s friend, Kyle Peterson, had sold him heroin the day before, sometime before Schnettler died around 10:30 p.m. Peterson got that heroin from one of Harden’s associates, Brandi Kniebes-Larsen. Harden was eventually charged with conspiring to distribute the heroin that resulted in Schnettler’s death, and the case against him focused largely on Peterson’s delivery of 0.1 grams of heroin to Schnettler on the day he died. At trial, the parties presented competing timelines of the delivery. The government contended that Peterson delivered Harden’s No. 20-1154 3 heroin between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. and that Schnettler died from it shortly thereafter. The defense countered that Schnettler received and used Harden’s heroin by 5:00 p.m., did not get high from it, and overdosed on heroin or morphine he obtained from another source later that evening. The government’s case began with Dr. Giese, the medical examiner. Based on an examination of Schnettler’s body, she opined that he died from a fatal dose of heroin. A toxicology report, which showed that Schnettler’s urine contained morphine and another heroin metabolite, conﬁrmed her opinion. She explained that she would have seen a higher level of morphine, beyond what metabolizes from heroin, if he had taken morphine separately. Regarding when Schnettler consumed the fatal dose, she said that death can occur between several minutes to hours after a heroin injection, depending on its potency. She explained that if Schnettler was communicative at 8:00 p.m. on the day he died (as shown in the text exchange below, evidence suggests that he was), it would be “a little bit surprising” for a dose injected by 5:00 p.m. to have killed him. Kyle Peterson testiﬁed next. He said that the heroin he delivered the day Schnettler died came from Harden by way of Brandi Kniebes-Larsen. He bought it from her that afternoon and got high. Later, between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., he drove to Schnettler’s to hand oﬀ 0.1 grams, which Schnettler used. The next morning, Peterson said, he overdosed on the remaining heroin around the time Schnettler was found dead. He acknowledged that he “might have” initially told police he drove to Schnettler’s immediately after buying heroin in the afternoon. But, he said, he misspoke because he was still shaky from his overdose and did not yet know that Schnettler was dead when he gave that statement. 4 No. 20-1154 To suggest that Peterson had delivered heroin to Schnettler earlier in the day, Harden’s counsel introduced the following text messages and call logs, showing attempts by Schnettler to get heroin from Peterson after 5:00 p.m.: 5:09 p.m. Schnettler: “It short for sure cus I thought last nights was small and this is way smaller also last nights was better” 5:14 p.m. Peterson: “Yeah ik a couple other ones were too, Im grabnimg more of lastnight quality as we speaj” 5:15 p.m. Schnettler: “Yeh dude I’ve almost done all of it and I'm not even high” 5:21 p.m. Peterson: “Oh wow. I’m sorry man. I got some thing for you bud.” 5:22 p.m. Schnettler: “How bout drop me an- other one oﬀ tonight” 5:24 p.m. Peterson: “That’s what I’m saying” 5:26 p.m. Schnettler: “Ima shower quick then I’ll call yah” 5:39 p.m. Peterson: “Ight just grabbed that grey shit from lastnight so I got you” 5:45 p.m. Schnettler: “Can u come this way quick” 5:58 p.m. Peterson: “Yeah I can before I head to appleton” 5:59 p.m. Schnettler: “Eta” 6:17 p.m. [Schnettler calls Peterson] No. 20-1154 5 6:18 p.m. [Schnettler calls Peterson] 6:42 p.m. [Peterson calls Schnettler] 7:01 p.m. Schnettler: “Were the fuck are you” 7:04 p.m. [Schnettler calls Peterson] 7:04 p.m. Schnettler: “Hello” 7:09 p.m. [Schnettler calls Peterson] 7:38 p.m. Schnettler: “U on ur way” 7:39 p.m. Peterson: “Yessir” 7:40 p.m. Schnettler: “Eta” 7:41 p.m. Schnettler: “?” 7:42 p.m. [Schnettler calls Peterson] 8:40 p.m. [Schnettler calls Peterson] 8:53 p.m. [Schnettler calls Peterson] After 9:00 p.m., Schnettler did not communicate further with Peterson but texted his friends, posted on Facebook, and sent a ﬁnal text message to his mother at 10:20 p.m. Despite this evidence, Peterson insisted that he delivered heroin to Schnettler only once that day, and that the delivery occurred between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Finally, the jury heard from Kniebes-Larsen. She testiﬁed that Harden was her only source of heroin and on the day of Schnettler’s death, she met with Harden to obtain some. Harden warned her that she “needed to be very careful [with it] because apparently there were bodies on [it].” She delivered that heroin to Peterson between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. When she was arrested the next day, she swallowed a bag with 1.5 grams of the same heroin (about 15 times the amount 6 No. 20-1154 that Peterson delivered to Schnettler) and survived. Although she thought it was weak, she explained that heroin aﬀects people diﬀerently. Before the close of evidence, the district court conferred with the parties about the jury instructions and the verdict form. Harden’s counsel said that the government’s proposed instructions looked “reasonable” and he had no “particular battle over anything.” For the special-verdict question about Schnettler’s death, the parties agreed on the following language drawn from the text of § 841(b)(1)(B): “Did the death of Frederick J. Schnettler result from his use of heroin distributed by defendant Donald S. Harden?” Adhering to the parties’ agreement, the court instructed the jury on this question as follows: The United States does not have the burden of establishing that the Defendant intended death—intended that death resulted from the distribution or the use of the controlled sub- stance, nor does the United States have the bur- den of establishing that the Defendant knew or should have known that death would result from distribution of the controlled substance by the Defendant. If you ﬁnd the Government has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Freder- ick J. Schnettler died as a result of the use of her- oin distributed by the Defendant, then you should answer question number one “yes.” During deliberations, a juror asked: “Can we factor in other possibilities not presented?” The court said “yes” and reminded the jury to use “common sense in weighing the evidence and consider the evidence in light of your own No. 20-1154 7 everyday experience.” The jury found Harden guilty of conspiracy to distribute heroin. It answered “yes” to the specialverdict question asking whether Schnettler’s death “result[ed] from” heroin distributed by Harden. Based on this ﬁnding, the district court sentenced Harden to life in prison under the death-results provision in § 841(b)(1)(B).