Published: February 07, 2007 11:01 pm

Clay had lethal doses of drugs in system, expert says

By BEN FIELDS — The Independent

Catlettsburg — A Flatwoods woman who died of a gunshot wound last year in an Ashland apartment already had enough drugs in her system to kill a normal person, a medical expert testified Wednesday.

But 28-year-old Faith Clay was still alive up until the point that a 9 mm bullet struck her below her right eye and exited the back of her skull, said Dr. Kristin Roth, of the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort.

Roth took the stand late Wednesday afternoon in the trial of Ashlander Timothy Scott Simpson, 24, who is accused of murder and tampering with physical evidence.

She said Clay had .75 milligrams of methadone per liter of blood in her body at the time of her death, as well as .25 milligrams of Xanax per liter.

Methadone is a synthetic opiate sometimes used as a painkiller or to wean addicts off of drugs such as heroin, Lortab and OxyContin. Xanax is an anti-anxiety drug.

In large enough doses, the drugs — methadone in particular — can be fatal.

“The level found in Faith Clay was quite high,” Roth said. “It would have been lethal in someone who hadn’t taken it before.”

But it was a gunshot, and not a drug overdose, that killed Clay, Roth said.

She said when the bullet entered Clay’s brain, the organ hemorrhaged, meaning blood was still flowing through her body. Clay likely only survived for a few minutes at best after the shooting, Roth said.

Roth said Clay’s tolerance might have been high enough to take the levels of the drugs in her system, but added the woman likely would have experienced at least some impairment both in motor skills and mental function at the time.

The evidence seems to beg the question whether Clay would have been functional enough to pick up a firearm and shoot herself, as the defense is claiming she did.

But, when questioned by Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice on that point, Roth said she couldn’t say how impaired Clay was at the time of the shooting, because there is no way to gauge Clay’s tolerance level for the drugs.

Roth did testify that there was no evidence of powder burns or residue on Clay’s face, meaning the gun was several inches to at least a few feet away from her when fired.

There were green plastic shards found on her body, along with small wounds inflicted by the exploding plastic, supporting the theory that the gun was fired with a homemade silencer comprised of a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle duct-taped to the gun.

Roth was still under direct examination from Justice when court was recessed for the day.

She will take the stand this morning to finish direct and undergo cross-examination from defense attorney Michael Curtis.