Drug Overdose

A North Philadelphia man and woman are sought on murder charges in connection with the fatal drug overdose of an infant last summer, police said Friday. Milton Galarza-Rojas was 9 months old on July 29 when he was rushed to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. Medics had responded to a home in the 4500 block of North Seventh Street where a caller had reported a baby was having difficulty breathing, police said. The child was not breathing when medics arrived at 2:36 a.m. Milton died at the hospital, police said, and an autopsy determined he died of heroin and cocaine intoxication.

Oakland kicker Sebastian Janikowski fell at a nightclub because of "an apparent drug overdose," cutting his face and requiring five stitches a few hours after the Raiders' game against Dallas, the San Francisco police said yesterday. Janikowski was taken to a hospital after patrons at the Sno-Drift Bar reported that he had collapsed early Monday morning, said Dewayne Tully, a police spokesman. Janikowski, 23, who attended team meetings later Monday, was not arrested, Tully said.

The Medical Examiner's Office has concluded that 8-year-old Kalilah Williams died of drug intoxication after ingesting a powerful painkiller, and has ruled her death a homicide, Health Department spokesman Jeff Moran said yesterday. That ruling was somewhat surprising to Homicide Unit detectives investigating the death. Detectives said they would await a decision by the District Attorney's Office before lodging any charges. Cathie Abookire, spokeswoman for District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, said yesterday a decision would be made after a thorough review of the facts surrounding the girl's death.

According to a television report yesterday, Rico Marshall, the football star at Forestville (Md.) High School who police say died after swallowing six chunks of the cocaine derivative crack Saturday, had been arrested on drug charges earlier. Marshall, 18, was a record-setting running back at the school in suburban Washington, D.C., and on Wednesday, he signed a letter of intent to play at the University of South Carolina. Family members said they did not believe drugs were involved in his death.

Mary Alice Tobin, the Washington Township woman who was arrested on drug charges shortly after her son died of a drug overdose in February, has been indicted on a charge of first-degree aggravated manslaughter in the boy's death, the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office announced yesterday. The 41-count indictment was handed up by a county grand jury late Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said. Tobin, 41, has been held on full cash bail of $100,000 in the county Women's Detention Center in Clarksboro since her arrest on Feb. 4, the day after her 13-year-old son, Daniel, was found dead by his grandfather, Charles Sharkey, at the family's Washington Township home.

Three people were in jail last night in connection with the death of Walter "Vodge" Wilczynski 3d, whose body was found Friday near a Conshohocken bike path, five days after the 24-year-old Norristown man was reported missing. Acting on a tip Friday afternoon, Montgomery County detectives and Conshohocken police arrested Lori Miller, 41, and William Robbins, 57, both of the 300 block of East Elm Street in Conshohocken and charged them with abuse of a corpse, for allegedly dumping Wilczynski's body by the path.

A 20-year-old man from Virginia Beach, Va., died of an apparent drug overdose yesterday after attending an all-night weekend concert at the Mount Airy Lodge Sports Palace in Mount Pocono, state police said. Jason Robert Williamson was taken to the Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg early Sunday morning. Police said they were continuing to investigate his death. Police said at least two others were treated for drug overdoses during the all-night music-and-dance festival, which began at 8 p.m. Saturday night and lasted until 6 a.m. Sunday.

A Bucks County prison inmate serving a one- to two-year sentence on a drug conviction died of a weekend drug overdose, District Attorney Diane E. Gibbons said yesterday, but she declined to say what drug the prisoner took or where he got it. Gibbons said Michael Fadako, 23, of Philadelphia, was found unconscious in his cell at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. He was not breathing and had no pulse, authorities said. Harris Gubernick, superintendent of community corrections for the Bucks County prison, said that prison medical personnel tried to revive Fadako for about 30 minutes before taking him to Doylestown Hospital.

A drug overdose may have caused the death of a homeless man found early this morning on the steps of the Norristown Public Library, according to Montgomery County officials. Norristown Police Chief Russell Bono said a security guard making rounds at 7 a.m. found the 46-year-old man on the rear steps of the library at Powell and Swede Streets. The body was surrounded by empty drug packets, Bono said. Police were withholding the man's identity until his family could be located.

Should people who witness a drug overdose be shielded from arrest for their illegal behavior?

A drug overdose may have caused the death of a homeless man found early this morning on the steps of the Norristown Public Library, according to Montgomery County officials. Norristown Police Chief Russell Bono said a security guard making rounds at 7 a.m. found the 46-year-old man on the rear steps of the library at Powell and Swede Streets. The body was surrounded by empty drug packets, Bono said. Police were withholding the man's identity until his family could be located.

A North Philadelphia man and woman are sought on murder charges in connection with the fatal drug overdose of an infant last summer, police said Friday. Milton Galarza-Rojas was 9 months old on July 29 when he was rushed to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. Medics had responded to a home in the 4500 block of North Seventh Street where a caller had reported a baby was having difficulty breathing, police said. The child was not breathing when medics arrived at 2:36 a.m. Milton died at the hospital, police said, and an autopsy determined he died of heroin and cocaine intoxication.

FIFTY SOLD-OUT London arena shows were already in the bank. So what would Michael Jackson have done next with his big career comeback show, "This Is It," had a drug overdose not ended his life? "Kuala Lumpur was to be the next stop," said Travis Payne, then working on the show's choreography with its?"brilliant" star and director Kenny Ortega. "Michael wanted to revolutionize the way tours were being done. He was always thinking like a great producer, too. He was telling us we needed to design a way to maximize the audience that could see him with less travel time for him and the company.

Azuka Theatre's production of Hope Street and Other Lonely Places by Genne Murphy is exactly the kind of show I want to like. A small theater company, a new script by a local playwright, and under the direction of Kevin Glaccum, who runs the company. I arrived with my cheerleader pom-poms at the ready. And then the play began. About halfway through Act 1, I whispered to my friend in the next seat, "Did it start yet?" Hope Street , set in Philadelphia, is built on so many cliches, so much inaction, with so pointlessly inconclusive a plot, and performed in a style of acting so naturalistic that it seems to be anti-acting, that the answer to my question was both yes, obviously, and no, not really.

Should people who witness a drug overdose be shielded from arrest for their illegal behavior?

New Jersey lawmakers have been referred to the Bible for a lesson in how they should respond to legislation that could help prevent drug overdose deaths in the state. A vote later this month by the Senate Judiciary Committee may reveal who got the message. The so-called Good Samaritan Overdose Response Act would provide limited legal protection to anyone who witnesses a drug overdose and calls for help. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, most overdose victims don't die for several hours after taking a drug, which is often in the presence of others.

DISGRACED Philadelphia Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell; his wife, Pearl, and two former employees of his closed clinic are all who remain to be tried, now that a sixth co-defendant in the case has pleaded guilty. Tina Baldwin, 46, who worked at Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic for nine years, yesterday entered her plea to being a part of a corrupt organization, to conspiracy and to corruption of a minor. Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner set her sentencing for Jan. 4. Baldwin's plea follows a stream of five pleas that began last month.

The body of a 41-year-old man who might have died of a drug overdose was dumped from a car Friday afternoon outside a Northeast Philadelphia cemetery, police said. The driver was later arrested and could face charges of recklessly endangering another person or abuse of corpse, depending on when the man died, Chief Inspector Scott Small said. The body was dumped from the car shortly after 4 p.m. in the 6400 block of Cottage Street on the sidewalk next to Magnolia Cemetery. The man was taken to Aria Health-Torresdale Campus and was pronounced dead.

A Philadelphia jury yesterday found an Overbrook man guilty of murdering his girlfriend and abusing her corpse in 2005. On the second day of deliberating, the Common Pleas jury convicted Glenn Hansen, 47, of the first-degree murder of Taneke Daniels, 27, a mother of three who was last seen on May 12, 2005. Hansen, a thin, bespectacled man, showed no emotion as the jury of five women and seven men affirmed their guilty verdicts. Daniels' relatives let out sighs of relief. "I'm just glad that it's over.

Homicide detectives were pressing her to tell everything. Her domineering older brother was intimidating her not to tell the police, their mother, anyone. Feeling her world closing in around her, Kelly Hansen sat down on Sept. 19, 2006, with pen and paper and wrote, "To Whom It May Concern: My brother, Glenn Scott Hansen, has put a bigger burden on my shoulders than ever. " Hansen, 41, wrote on, describing how her brother told her he smothered girlfriend Taneke Daniels, 27, in May 2005 to stop her from testifying against him in a domestic-abuse hearing; how he had sex with Daniels' corpse, wrapped her up, and buried her in the Pine Barrens; how she agreed to join him on two trips to the grave and heard him cry out to the woods, "I'm sorry, I love you. " "He told me he wanted me there for support," Hansen wrote in the letter she gave to a friend for safekeeping on Oct. 3, 2006.