Fumes Overcame 3 : Supplier Faces Murder Trial in Drug-Lab Case

A Vista man who supplied chemicals for a clandestine drug laboratory in Van Nuys was ordered Thursday to stand trial on murder charges in connection with the October deaths of three workers who were overcome by poisonous gases while manufacturing methamphetamine.

Despite a defense argument that the workers caused their own deaths by negligently allowing the chemicals to overheat, Los Angeles Municipal Judge Alban I. Niles ruled after a 3-day preliminary hearing that there was sufficient evidence to hold the defendant, Russell Blackwood, responsible.

Blackwood, 23, faces trial on three counts of second-degree murder and one count each of manufacturing methamphetamine, also known as “speed,” and conspiring to manufacturer the drug. He is scheduled for arraignment Jan. 23 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“This cook only killed three people,” the judge said, using the police term for boiling chemicals to make the crystalline substance. “The next one might have exploded and killed even more.”

The unusual case hinges on a state law that permits second-degree murder charges if a death occurs during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony. Police experts testified that all makeshift methamphetamine labs are extremely hazardous because they involve the use of toxic chemicals that can ignite, explode or create sickening gases.

Theory Has Been Used Successfully

It is the same theory that has been used successfully to prosecute cocaine and heroin suppliers for second-degree murder when a user dies of an overdose, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Carole A. Chizever.

Most of the evidence presented against Blackwood during the preliminary hearing came from his own statements to police after the bodies were discovered Oct. 5.

According to testimony from detectives, Blackwood said he purchased some of the chemicals that were used by the three victims and he expected to receive one-third of the profits from the eventual sale of the drug. Police testified that the liquid found boiling in the duplex in the 6400 block of Densmore Avenue would have produced two or three pounds of methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of $100,000.

The three victims were identified as David Michael Smith, 20, of Vista; his brother, Christopher Richard Smith, 27, of Van Nuys, and Lisa Ann Cross, 20, also of Van Nuys. Cause of death was acute intoxication by toxic gas, according to a coroner’s report.

Blackwood told investigators that he received a telephone call in Vista about 10 p.m. Oct. 4 from David Smith, who said something had gone wrong with the “cook” and all three in the duplex were ill. Blackwood said he drove from Vista in San Diego County to Van Nuys at David Smith’s request and arrived in the early morning of Oct. 5 to find Christopher Smith and Cross dead and David Smith extremely ill.

3rd Person Died En Route

Blackwood said he attempted to drive David Smith to a hospital, but Smith died en route.

Blackwood pulled into a restaurant parking lot at Victory Boulevard and Densmore Avenue and summoned paramedics.

Deputy Public Defender Larry H. Farinholt asserted that Blackwood should not be held responsible for the deaths because he was not a “hands-on perpetrator” in the illegal production of the drug. Blackwood merely supplied some chemicals that were misused by the three, Farinholt said.

The attorney asserted that a lay person would conclude, “ ‘They killed themselves. They made a mistake.’ ”

Blackwood is being held in County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison.