A Vancouver woman who killed a man by injecting him with a drug cocktail was sentenced Friday to four years in prison.
Tina M. Rico, 26, previously pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to delivery of a controlled substance. She originally faced a charge of second-degree manslaughter but pleaded to the amended charge as part of a plea deal.
Deputy Prosecutor Aaron Bartlett said Rico was facing the same amount of prison time for either charge. The benefit to her of taking the plea deal, however, was evading a strike offense. He added that you can’t “measure the price of a life in years.”
Court records state that on Oct. 15, 2014, Rico assisted an acquaintance, Jeffery Jorgensen, by injecting him, at his request, with a mixture of heroin and methamphetamine. When Jorgensen showed signs of overdosing, Rico injected him with another syringe of methamphetamine in an attempt to restart his heart.
Jorgensen was taken to a local hospital, where he died. The Clark County medical examiner determined Jorgensen’s death was caused by a combination of methamphetamine and heroin intoxication, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Bartlett said no one who was with Jorgensen at the time immediately summoned help.
Rico recorded an audio confession to the incident and reported her actions on social media. Several witnesses corroborated her admission, court records said.
During Rico’s hearing, Jorgensen’s mother said through tears that she thinks about her son every night before bed and how he was left to die.
“You killed my son,” she said to Rico. “I will never forgive her, never. She took him away from me.
“What goes around comes around, and it’s true,” she added.
Rico’s defense attorney, Therese Lavallee, said her client started using drugs when she was 15 years old. She’s attempted treatment in the past but relapsed.
“The devil, which is the drug, continues to haunt her,” Lavallee said.
Rico told the judge that she met Jorgensen through their drug use.
“I gave him drugs, and I shouldn’t have been the person who did that. I regret it, and I’m sorry,” she said, tearfully.
Judge Gregory Gonzales said there’s no doubt that Jorgensen was an addict but told Rico that his family is distraught because she didn’t get him proper medical attention. “You didn’t give him that chance to survive,” he said.
In addition to prison, Gonzales sentenced Rico to 12 months of community custody. She was given credit for 163 days in custody. Rico will have to undergo a substance abuse evaluation and treatment.
