Opinion ID: 2576153
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The poisoning

Text: In 1984, defendant lived in an apartment complex located at 5542 Sierra Vista Avenue in Hollywood. Dorothy Green shared apartment 209 in the same complex with a man named Goretha Murphy. One evening, a man whom Murphy believed was defendant came to their apartment. After Murphy let the man in, Murphy overheard the man tell Green that he wanted his money back and was going to get it. The man then left. On another occasion, the same man approached Murphy and told him that he had better do something about having Green return the money. Murphy then heard this man tell another person that he was going to get Green and Murphy. This led to a scuffle between Murphy and the man on the walkway near Green's apartment. On September 24, 1984, Rhoda Faye Miller, a former resident of the Sierra Vista apartment complex, and her eight-year-old son, William, went to visit Michelle Dubois in apartment 203. [2] Defendant was at Dubois's apartment when Miller and her son arrived. Defendant had a briefcase with him. After a while, Miller went to a store and returned with some food, soda, and a pint of rum. Miller, Dubois, and defendant consumed drinks of rum and cola. About 40 minutes after Miller returned, defendant asked to speak with her privately in the kitchen. There, defendant asked Miller to do him a favor by delivering to Dorothy Green a tall box wrapped in butcher paper and a ribbon, which he explained contained a bottle of gin. Defendant said he did not want to deliver the package himself, because Green's husband, Murphy, did not like them drinking together. Miller agreed and left Dubois's apartment with the package, leaving William and defendant with Dubois. When Miller arrived at Green's apartment, she told Green that she had brought a bottle of gin as a gift from defendant. Green said how nice, and invited Miller in for a drink. Once Miller was inside, Green took the bottle out of the box. To Miller, the seal on the cap of the bottle appeared to be intact, except for one spot that was not completely sealed. When Green opened the bottle, it made a swish sound as if it had been sealed. Green poured a six-to-eight-ounce glass of gin for herself. Miller put about two inches of gin into her own glass and mixed it with water. Green then drank her full glass of gin straight down, immediately said the gin did not taste right, and asked where defendant was. Miller took a swallow from her own glass. Miller thought the gin tasted like kerosene. As Green was returning from her bedroom, where she had gone to get her slippers, she began to fall. Miller caught her so she would not hit her head, and then Miller herself began to feel woozy. Both of them fell to the floor. Green was vomiting, so Miller turned her on her side to prevent her from choking, then called the paramedics, and told them she believed she and Green had been poisoned. Meanwhile, Dubois sent Miller's young son, William, to Green's apartment to look for Miller. William and defendant left Dubois's apartment at the same time; as William headed to Green's apartment, defendant left the complex. When William arrived at Green's apartment, he saw Miller on her knees by the telephone and Green lying on the floor on her side, barely moving. Miller told William to return to Dubois and tell her that she and Green had been poisoned. Miller then passed out. When Miller regained consciousness, several paramedics were in the apartment. Miller told one of the paramedics, Robert Miller (who was no relation), that she and Green had drunk some gin, and that possibly the gin had been poisoned. It appeared to Robert Miller that Green was in a more serious condition than Miller. Green was unconscious and critical. The paramedics inserted an I.V. into Green's arm and took her, Miller, and the gin bottle (which they had found in the apartment) to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. At the hospital, the paramedics gave the gin bottle to the police. Later tests of samples of gin from the bottle revealed that it contained sodium cyanide, at a quantity of 5 percent of the solid material.