Woman pleads guilty to reckless homicide
GREENFIELD — A Greenfield woman admitted Tuesday that she searched the Internet — rather than calling 911 — as her young friend lay beside her, dying of an overdose from the drugs she’d supplied him.
Anna Southgate, 20, of Greenfield, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one Level 4 felony count of dealing a narcotic drug and one Level 5 felony count of reckless homicide.
In the plea, Southgate admitted to giving 16-year-old Jacob Root a fatal dose of heroin in January.
The drug was laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid-based painkiller that is more than 50 times more potent than morphine.
Southgate showed Root how to inject the drug and then watched as his skin grew paler and he got “too high,” according to court documents. As Root overdosed, Southgate used her smartphone to do a series of Google searches including “what to do if your friend has overdosed” and “the dying process.”
She never called 911, court documents state.
These facts of the case were recounted aloud in court by a prosecutor during a brief hearing Tuesday, and Southgate agreed that they were accurate.
The plea agreement Southgate signed calls for her to serve a 12-year sentence, but it allows a judge to decide how and where she’ll spend that time. Prosecutors and Southgate’s attorney have agreed to cap the executed portion of her sentence at eight years.
A formal sentencing hearing has been set for Dec. 17 in Hancock Circuit Court.
