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May 14, 2008 1:31 pm US/Central
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18 Year Sentence For Man In 'Cheese' Heroin Death
DALLAS (CBS 11 News/AP) ―
It only took a Dallas County jury two hours to return a guilty verdict today against a man accused of providing the "cheese" heroin that killed his girlfriend's 15-year-old brother.
Later in the afternoon, jurors sentenced Deleon Vanegas to 18 years in state prison.
Prosecutors said Fernando Cortez, Jr. died in March 2007 after taking 'cheese'. They argued that Vanegas showed the teen how to snort the powder for the very first time.
Deleon Vanegas, 20, was convicted of delivery of a controlled substance to a child causing death. Last month, a murder charge against Vanegas was changed to the delivery charge, a second-degree felony.
Because the jury decided the heroin was a deadly weapon, Vanegas faced life in prison during the punishment phase, which began shortly after the verdict was announced.
Defense attorney Heath Hyde said during the trial Tuesday that Fernando Cortez Jr.'s death last year was an accidental drug overdose and that Cortez "was just as experienced and sophisticated a drug user as Mr. Vanegas."
The boy's father, Fernando Cortez Sr., and his sister, Bianca Cortez, disagreed. They testified that the night of Fernando Jr.'s death was the only time he had used cheese heroin, a powdered mixture of black tar heroin and cold medicine so named because it resembles grated Parmesan cheese.
Dozens of deaths in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been linked to the drug.
Prosecutor David Alex said that even if Cortez had been a regular drug user, Vanegas broke the law by providing heroin to a juvenile.
"If you have a dope problem, keep it to yourself," Alex said during closing arguments. "If you share with adults, it's likely nothing will happen. But when you start sharing it with our kids, we're going to hold you accountable."
(CBS 11 News/AP)