Jury deliberations were expected to continue Thursday in the second trial of Brenda Zillyette, accused of providing drugs that caused an overdose and death of an 18-year-old Elma man in 2009. Zillyette’s controlled substance homicide trial began on Tuesday in Grays Harbor County Superior court after her initial conviction was overturned by the state Supreme Court last year. The case went to the jury on Wednesday.
Zillyette, 47, is accused of providing Xanax and methadone pills to 18-year-old Austin Burrows before he was found dead in his bedroom on April 1, 2009, in Elma.
Zillyette won a new trial in 2013 after the state Supreme Court ruled that in her first trial, the prosecution’s paperwork lacked information regarding the charge. Specifically, the court said prosecuting attorney Gerald Fuller did not specify what controlled substance caused the death of Burrows.
Zillyette, however, was not cleared of any wrongdoing, although she has already served a sentence of four and a half years in prison for controlled substance homicide. She was released in 2013.
The prosecution aimed to convince the jury on Tuesday that the pills Burrows ingested belonged to Zillyette and that she provided him with the drugs that killed him.
Melody Lindley was working at the Elma Pharmacy on March 31, 2009, the day before Burrows’ death, and testified that Zillyette had picked up prescriptions for 60 1 mg Xanax tablets and 45 5 mg methadone pills.
In the first day of the new trial, Fuller also called two of Burrows’ friends from high school to the stand, Mitchell Grandorff and George Derek. Both testified they had received a text message from Burrows with a picture that showed him holding white and blue pills in his hand that were confirmed by Lindley to resemble Xanax and methadone. Grandorff and Derek received this picture the night before Burrows’ death, the same day that Zillyette allegedly filled both of her prescriptions, according to testimony.
Sarah Jean Zillyette, Zillyette’s daughter, testified that she was aware of her mother spending time with Burrows. “I knew that they did drugs together,” she said.
Keith Peterson of the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s’s office was the lead detective for the case and testified on the prosecution’s behalf that Zillyette had called Burrows multiple times on the day before his death, according to phone records.
Defense attorneys for Zillyette claimed there is no solid evidence that Burrows overdosed on drugs provided to him. They tried to convince the jury that unlabeled pill bottles found at Burrows’ home and his history as a drug user should insinuate that his death was caused by drugs he got from someone other than Zillyette.
When being cross-examined by defense attorney Ronnie Soriano Jr., Grays Harbor County Sheriff Patrol Sgt. Edward Patrick said that he had seen several prescription pill bottles in Burrows’ room while investigating the death.
He also said that the pill bottles had their labels ripped off.
Grandorff admitted during cross-examination that Burrows had been a heavy drug user prior to his death. “It was not uncommon for him to take a lot of drugs,” he said, adding that Burrows had been using for a “couple of years” before he died.
Peterson acknowledged that there were five or six phone calls made to people other than Zillyette on the day of Burrows’ death, as well. The defense took this as a sign that it’s possible one of Burrows’ acquaintances, other than Zillyette, had provided him with the drugs.
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