Woman denies guilt after friend dies from drug overdose
Toolbox
By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: July 24, 2009
BRATTLEBORO – A Westminster woman has pleaded innocent to charges that she sold narcotic prescription drugs to a friend who later died from a drug overdose.
Brenda Kennett, 45, of Shady Pines Trailer Park, was recently arraigned in connection with the July 2008 death of Caitlin N. Lancey, 25, of Bellows Falls.
According to court documents filed by the Bellows Falls police, Kennett sold Lancey four pills of Avinza for $200 on July 14, 2008, and Lancey was found dead the next morning in her bed by her husband.
Avinza is the trade name for morphine sulfate. Lancey's husband, Douglas, turned over one of the unused capsules to police after his wife died.
Bellows Falls Police Detective Jennifer Carroll wrote in her affidavit that she had already been to the Lancey home three times earlier for drug overdoses by Lancey.
According to statements Lancey's husband Douglas made to police, his wife had hurt her toe that day and was seeking painkillers.
According to court records, Douglas Lancey gave his wife $60 toward the $200 pills, and Caitlin Lancey's father, Cass Wright, also gave her money toward the drugs.
Lancey's own 10-year-old daughter accompanied her mother to Kennett's home to buy the drugs, according to court records, and helped police identify Kennett, who was only known to the Lancey family by her first name.
The girl told police that shortly after her mother took a pill at Kennett's home, she asked her daughter to forgive her and that she was ashamed of what she had done, and that she should "never do what your mom has done."
But once Lancey and her daughter got back to their Westminster Street home, the mother started "freaking out," the daughter told investigators, and told her daughter she was hearing voices.
If convicted, Kennett could be sentenced to three years in jail.
Bellows Falls Police Chief Ron Lake said the year delay in bringing charges against Kennett were because of a variety of factors. "There were (toxicological) screen issues, paperwork issues and we were also working another angle," the chief said.
He said police did investigate where Kennett got the drugs and determined that charges would not be filed against the doctor who prescribed the drugs to Kennett.
"I don't believe we can go after the doctor. I don't know where she got the drugs from. I don't know we can actually connect a doctor," he said.
The chief said young people who are experimenting with drugs often use other people's prescription drugs, which is extremely dangerous.
"The perception that it's safe if it's prescribed by a doctor is false," the chief said.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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