Local News in Brief : Transient Gets 3 Years in Drug Death
A 28-year-old transient woman who administered a fatal injection of heroin to a Reseda man was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday in Van Nuys Superior Court.
The woman, Esther Carla Jane Hall, had pleaded guilty last month to voluntary manslaughter in the Oct. 6 death of Antonio Guadalupe Lopez, 42. Hall had been charged with murder, but in a plea bargain pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in exchange for a commitment from prosecutors that she would be sentenced to no more than three years in state prison.
Hall told investigators that she bought heroin at Lopez’s request and injected it into his left forearm, according to a probation report prepared for the sentencing.
Hall said she and Lopez had been drinking that day. Authorities suspect that the combination of heroin, alcohol and possibly other drugs resulted in Lopez’s almost immediate death.
His body was found outside Hall’s trailer in the 18400 block of Saticoy Street in Reseda, court records said.
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