The television series Friends was a staple of my young adult life. So in 2022 when Matthew Perry published his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, I was eager to hear his story. In that work, Perry laid bare his decades-long struggle with addiction, though he ended the book on a hopeful note, reporting his then-current sobriety and his desire to someday marry and have children. A year later, Perry was found dead in a hot tub in his home. The medical examiner determined the cause of death as the “acute effects of ketamine.”
Five people were charged with federal crimes in connection with Perry’s death, including a Santa Monica physician, Salvador Plasencia (“Dr. P”) who repeatedly sold vials of ketamine to Perry, though not the vials that caused Perry’s death. Plasencia pled guilty last summer to four counts of distribution of ketamine and was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment.
This week, another primary target of the investigation was sentenced. Jasveen Sangham, who sold Perry the ketamine that killed him, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Sangham was known as the “Ketamine Queen,” and prosecutors say she operated a high volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood residence. Sangham reportedly marketed herself as a dealer who sold exclusively to A-list clientele.
CNN reports that shortly after Sangha was indicted, E. Martin Estrada, the then-US Attorney for the Central District of California, told reporters: “Defendants nowadays are on full notice that the products they sell could result in the death of another person. Therefore, if you’re in the drug business and despite these risks, you continue in the drug business, you are pushed by greed to gamble with other people’s lives, be advised, we will hold you accountable.”
Dateline material. This week, Joshua Hunsucker, a Gaston County man who is accused of killing his wife, Stacy, by putting lethal doses of eye drops containing tetrahydrozoline into her drinks over the course of weeks, pled not guilty to first-degree murder and insurance fraud. Stacy Hunsucker’s 2018 death initially was thought to have resulted from natural causes, and she was cremated two days after she died. When suspicions later arose about the circumstances of her death, the medical examiner tested vials of Stacy’s blood that were collected before the cremation. There the examiner discovered tetrahydrozoline.
Those allegations alone are worthy of a true crime special, but the story gets stranger from there. WBTV reports that Hunsucker was arrested for the murder on Dec. 19, 2019, and bonded out on Christmas Eve that year. Hunsucker, then a paramedic for Atrium Health, was arrested again in March 2021 for setting a piece of medical equipment aboard a helicopter on fire while the aircraft was mid-flight.
Then, in 2023, Hunsucker is alleged to have staged his own kidnapping. He reportedly told police that he stopped to change a flat tire and was pistol-whipped with his hands zip-tied. Later that same month, Hunsucker was accused of poisoning one of his daughters with tetrahydrozoline. The girl was hospitalized but recovered.
WRAL reports that Hunsucker’s attorney has moved for a change of venue, stating that the case has received a lot of attention in the family’s hometown of Mount Holly.
Defendants’ capacity at issue in two high-profile murder cases. As John Rubin explained in his recent publication on capacity to proceed, “[d]ue process and North Carolina law prohibit the trial and punishment of a person who is legally incapable of proceeding.” A person is incapable when, by reason of mental illness or defect, he or she is unable to (1) understand the nature and object of the proceedings, (2) comprehend his or her situation in reference to the proceedings, or (3) assist in his or her defense in a rational or reasonable manner.
On Tuesday, a superior court judge determined that Nigel Edge, the former Marine Corps sergeant charged with murder and other crimes for opening fire on patrons at the American Fish Company in Southport last September, killing three people and injuring five others, lacked capacity to proceed. WRAL reports that Brunswick County District Attorney Jon David said that all of the mental health professionals who have evaluated Edge agree that he lacks the capacity to proceed to trial. Following the judicial determination of incapacity, Edge was committed to Cherry Hospital, where medical professionals will treat him and attempt to restore his capacity.
Also on Tuesday, an attorney representing DeCarlos Brown, the man charged with killing Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train last August, filed a motion to continue proceedings in the case. In that motion, the attorney stated that Central Regional Hospital had issued a report finding Brown incapable to proceed. The trial court has not yet considered the matter of Brown’s capacity as Brown currently is in federal custody on federal charges arising from the murder.
Officer sentenced in deadly ice cooler incident. Former NYPD narcotics officer Erik Duran was sentenced on Thursday to three to nine years in prison for manslaughter. The convictions arose from Duran throwing a cooler filled with ice, water and sodas at Eric Duprey, who was fleeing from officers on a motorized scooter. As Duprey drove the scooter toward a group of people on the sidewalk, Duran picked up a bystander’s cooler and threw it, striking Duprey. Duprey lost control of the scooter, slammed into a tree, and crashed, sustaining fatal head injuries. CNN reports that prosecutors argued Duran had enough time to warn others to move but instead hurled the cooler because he was angry.
Things you don’t want to hear your bus driver say. At the top of the list might be: “Not gonna stop for no train.” Yet that is precisely what law enforcement officers believe they heard the driver of a Sumter County, Florida school bus say on a recording from inside a bus that was in fact clipped by a train on April 2. The bus driver, Yvonne Hampton, allegedly drove a bus full of school children over a railroad crossing after the warning lights had activated and the crossing arms had begun to lower. She was charged with 29 felony counts of child neglect. Fortunately, no students were injured.
Off-duty hero. Chatham County Deputy Herbie Stubbs and his family were vacationing at Ocean Isle Beach over Easter weekend when they saw two children clinging to a pier in distress. Stubbs, along with his son and his daughter’s boyfriend, fought against the current and pulled the boys out of the water. Once on the beach, the boys were examined by paramedics and then were able to return to their families, suffering only from cuts and abrasions.
Stubbs is a school resource officer at Seaforth High School, and Sheriff Mike Roberson told WRAL that the calm, service-driven mindset Stubbs displayed on the beach also defines his work in schools. Stubbs may now work at Seaforth, but he and I are both graduates of Northwood High School. Herbie, thanks for making the Class of 1990 proud! Go Chargers!
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