Charges await autopsy results

A college freshman who allegedly admitted supplying a dose of the hallucinogen LSD to a young woman last week will not face manslaughter charges until the dead woman’s autopsy results have been studied, Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas said Monday.

“We just can’t file involuntary manslaughter charges without the forensic autopsy results,” Douglas said. “We don’t want any surprises. We need the forensic autopsy to determine the exact cause of death and the degree of toxicity in the victim.”

Coeur d’Alene Police said Friday they had recommended the prosecutor file manslaughter charges against 18-year-old Cameron Jester, of Lincoln, Neb. The announcement came little more than an hour after 18-year-old Gloria Discerni, of Cottage Grove, Ore., was removed from life support and died at Kootenai Medical Center.

Discerni had lost consciousness on Tuesday evening after ingesting what police believe to be as many as 10 hits of LSD mixed into a glass of orange juice at a party. She had remained in a coma, her condition worsening, until her family requested the hospital remove her from life support at 2:44 p.m. Friday. She died a minute later.

The autopsy was performed Monday in Spokane, Douglas said. A detective with the Kootenai County Joint Drug Task Force was present.

Tissue and blood samples to determine the level of drugs in Discerni’s body will be sent to the Idaho state crime lab and the Spokane testing firm Pathology Associates. Obtaining results may take two or three weeks, Douglas said.

Jester was arrested Tuesday night after helping friends take Discerni to the hospital. He has been held in the Kootenai County Jail on $100,000 bond on two drug charges: delivery of LSD and possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Also Monday, officials at North Idaho College, where Discerni and Jester were enrolled, said campus medical staff will hold a forum today to answer student questions about the overdose and what services are available. The information session is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in the Student Union Building.

Discerni and Jester were at a small party – police say only four or five peo-ple attended – at an apartment building near the NIC campus last Tuesday. Jester, police say, has said he and Discerni ingested LSD.