Teen charged in New Year's Day drug death

EVERETT — A teenager has become the second person charged with controlled substance homicide in the Ecstasy overdose of a 16-year-old girl on New Year's Day.

Snohomish County prosecutors filed the charge against a 17-year-old high-school junior and classmate of Danielle Dawn McCarthy, 16, of Puyallup, who was dead by the time fellow partygoers took her to a hospital early on the morning of Jan . 1.

The 17-year-old girl pleaded innocent at her arraignment Friday and was released to her mother's custody.

David M. Morris, 20, of Puyallup, was charged in February with controlled substance homicide, essentially providing an illegal drug to someone who dies as a result, and Patrick McCarthy, the dead girl's father, said Wednesday he wouldn't be shocked if others also are charged.

"We have to sit back and let the state do its job," he said.

"Knowing who the players were, we knew more charges were coming," the father said. "We are hoping that others could be charged in the way of rendering help" to the crime.

He said his daughter had been spending time with the 17-year-old girl for several weeks but was "not a close friend." The girl spent a night at the McCarthys' residence in the week before the death, and the parents thought their daughter was spending New Year's Eve at the 17-year-old's house.

Instead, according to court documents, the two girls went with Morris to New Year's Eve parties in Edmonds and the University District in Seattle, then returned to Edmonds after McCarthy got sick and began slipping into unconsciousness periodically.

She was pronounced dead after Morris and the 17-year-old took her to Stevens Hospital in Edmonds.