DRUG DEALERS RECEIVE HEAVY SENTENCE – HARCFL SUPPORTED INVESTIGATION

September 24, 2009 Roommates Benjamin Clarkson, 39 and John Williams, 30 of Kansas City received a collective sentence of 55 years in federal prison—without parole—for manufacturing methamphetamines which caused the death of Carly Morris, 24. Carly was at the pair's apartment and took a sip of what she thought was soda. It was lye – a common and lethal chemical used to make methamphetamines. After ingesting the lye, she immediately became sick. However, instead of taking Carly to the hospital or calling 9-1-1, Williams instead took her home. Carly went to her job that afternoon, where her co-workers immediately rushed her to the emergency room.

At the hospital, Ms. Morris told doctors she drank something that made her sick, but didn't know what it was. She then called Mr. Williams on her cell phone, and he informed her that the substance was indeed, lye. Because lye is so corrosive, medical personnel had few options to treat Carly, who by then, was in excruciating pain and could barely speak. Had she received medical treatment sooner, her odds for recovery would have been much greater. However, either Williams or Clarkson helped her because they feared authorities would discover the illegal methamphetamine lab in their apartment. She suffered for nearly a week, dying of overwhelming pneumonia caused by a perforated esophagus. Her throat and other major organs literally turned into liquefied tissue.

Kansas City police detectives obtained search warrants for Carly's and Williams' cell phones and providers. The cell phones were processed at the Heart of America RCFL where Examiners confirmed through cell phone GPS records that Williams picked Carly up at her home, took her to his apartment, and then back to her house. The pair also exchanged approximately 40 text messages during Carly's hospital stay. Other messages recovered from Carly's phone indicated that she ingested chemicals and texted Williams that "things were very serious." The text messages were used as a graphic reminder of the dangers of meth use, as they represented the typed narrative of the victim as she lay dying. The HARCFL examiner extracted the text messages by special photographic equipment from the phone's screen, to show the court the exact view from the perspective of the victim. Acting U.S. Attorney Matt Whitworth said, "...Justice has been served for these defendants whose criminal behavior recklessly endangered the lives of others."