Trask Warns Meth Users

Riverside County Dist. Atty. Grover Trask said he hopes the aggressive prosecution of a Perris woman charged with killing her infant son -- possibly with a lethal dose of methamphetamine-laced breast milk -- will help stem the rampant meth use plaguing the county.

Amy Leanne Prien, a 31-year-old mother of three, will be on trial this week for allegedly murdering her 3-month-old son, Jacob Wesley Smith, more than a year ago, either with her breast milk or through an act of criminal neglect.

Prien’s attorney calls the case a legal sideshow that has more to do with politics and pandering to the public than the evidence against his client, who he says has been vilified by prosecutors despite her innocence.

The case against Prien is solid, Trask said, and her conviction would send a warning to those taking or selling drugs that their behavior can have serious repercussions.

“If you’re in the drug world and causing harm to others, while understanding the dangerous nature of what you do, you are responsible for what happens to them,” Trask said. “That is a crime, and you will be held accountable in this county.”

Riverside County’s drug trade has earned it the title “methamphetamine capital of the country,” according to some drug enforcement authorities. Authorities in Riverside County seized 226 meth-making labs, arrested 382 people and removed 89 children from the lab sites from the beginning of 2002 through March 2003, according to the Riverside-based Inland Narcotics Clearinghouse.

“The No. 1 reason you seek to convict individuals is for their illegal conduct. Another reason is the deterrence impact. We want to deter this behavior,” Trask said. “This woman used drugs. Based upon the laws of implied murder, our lawyers believe this case warranted prosecution on that [murder] level and that 12 jurors would decide the same. That’s why we’re going to court.”

In January 2002, Prien woke up and found her son dead in bed beside her. His death originally was labeled sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but that changed a month later when the coroner’s toxicology report revealed the baby had overdosed on methamphetamine.

Prosecutors initially believed that the boy ingested it through Prien’s breast milk -- a theory expected to be presented to the jury. But there is also speculation that he ingested the drug from meth-tainted plastic baby bottle liners used in drug deals in the house, or by eating meth spilled into his bassinet.

“[Prien] was alone with the baby from 11 p.m. the night before until the time of death the next morning,” said Allison Nelson, the Riverside County supervising deputy district attorney who will prosecute Prien. “The circumstances will show she was responsible for Jacob getting the methamphetamine.”

Defense attorney Stephen Yagman argues that the need to deliver a strong public message in a drug-troubled county has resulted in overaggressive prosecution. If convicted of second-degree murder, Prien could face a life sentence.

“Grover Trask saw this as a marquee case to try to publicize the evils of methamphetamine use. This case was driven 100% by Grover Trask trying to give a precautionary note to Riverside County,” Yagman said.

“What’s wrong with that is he’s done it by picking on an innocent person.”

The charge against Prien, Yagman has said, should be child endangerment, not murder.

“It’s reckless to charge someone with murder if you’re not sure how the death happened,” Yagman said Monday in a court hearing.

At the time of the boy’s death, Prien was living in Mead Valley with her four children, a male roommate and his teenage daughter. In January 2003, she tested positive for drugs and has been jailed since. Her three children now live with her mother, Janelle Dzik of Corona.

Dzik is adamant that her daughter is innocent, and said Prien was not breast-feeding Jacob when he died, noting that police recovered a baby bottle in the boy’s bassinet. The baby bottle has since been lost, Yagman said.

“I know my daughter. She has taken very good care of her kids. And she loved that baby. He brought her back to life,” Dzik said. “There’s no way she would’ve done anything to hurt that baby, including being careless by using drugs around him.”

Prien named the child after her brother, Wesley Smith, who was killed six years ago in the Northern California town of Downieville when a tree fell on him. Eight years earlier, Prien’s “true love,” husband Troy Prien, died in a motorcycle accident, Dzik said.

“Amy’s had a hard life,” Dzik said.

Dzik said the unplanned pregnancy and premature birth of Jacob Wesley first frightened, then elated Prien, who was said to be thrilled the baby had survived the difficult birth with no health problems. Jacob Wesley symbolized a fresh start to Prien, her mother said.

But the prosecutor paints a different portrait of Prien’s home life.

Prien’s house, in a low-income community also referred to as “Speed Valley,” was the site of numerous drug deals, with “dopers running in and out of there,” Nelson alleged.

The prosecution’s witnesses, some of whom have known Prien for years, are expected to testify about those drug deals and that Prien used drugs, even during pregnancy and breastfeeding, Nelson said.

Proving the implied murder charge, Nelson said, is comparable to prosecuting a drunk driver who killed a child passenger. “The jury will have to draw from inferences,” Nelson said. “I believe they will draw the inference that [Prien] did this.”

Yagman, a high-profile Venice Beach-based attorney who replaced Prien’s public defender, said prosecutors have no evidence that the baby died of meth poisoning. Yagman has retained medical experts who say the boy would have drowned in breast milk before he could have received an overdose of meth by breastfeeding.

Yagman also will argue that the baby’s premature birth, a case of pneumonia at the time he died, and possible neurological damage left him predisposed to SIDS.

A possible explanation of how meth entered the baby’s system, Yagman said, centers on Prien’s male roommate. Yagman said a witness alleges the roommate was selling meth at the home that was packaged in baby bottle liners.

“The district attorney was going on with this like it was a big high-profile case,” Yagman said. “Now they’re worried. Now they have a tiger by the tail.”