Judge: Woman to stand trial in death by opioid overdose
A Las Vegas judge found Tuesday that prosecutors had enough evidence for a woman to stand trial on a charge of second-degree murder, stemming from an opioid overdose that left another 21-year-old dead earlier this year.
Aria Styron, 21, also faces a felony count of selling or transporting a controlled substance.
At a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, Styron’s ex-boyfriend testified that he knew Styron was going to sell oxycodone pills to Adrianna Folks, who died on March 4.
“That testimony alone is very sufficient,” Justice of the Peace Joseph Sciscento said before ordering Styron to appear in District Court.
Styron is accused of selling Folks counterfeit prescription pills that later tested positive for fentanyl. Las Vegas police have said that Folks’ father found her dead inside her bedroom.
According to Dr. Ben Murie, a medical examiner for the Clark County coroner’s office who performed Folks’ autopsy, the woman died of fentanyl toxicity. He ruled her manner of death an accident.
In his testimony Monday, the doctor said that 26 nanograms per milliliter of fentanyl had been found in Folks’ blood.
In cross-examination, Styron’s attorney, T. Augustus Claus, questioned why the doctor did not rule Folks’ death a suicide, pointing to old scars on her body that he said appeared to be self-inflicted and an apparent prior suicide attempt when Folks was a teenager.
“Would it be safe to say that in this particular autopsy of this body, your manner of death came down to largely two choices: either suicide or accident?” Claus asked. “Is that correct?”
“That’s correct,” Dr. Murie said.
The judge also heard from Tasha Olson, a Las Vegas police crime scene analyst who documented the scene of Folks’ overdose. According to Olson, the woman was found dead in a firstfloor bedroom of her parents’ home.
A lighter was found in her hand, Olson said, and next to Folks’ body were charred aluminum foil, a paper clip, a toothpick and a partially smoked blue pill, which authorities say was purchased from the defendant.