Skylar O'Kelly gave emotional testimony at his trial Wednesday in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court, saying he was unaware of the potential dangers of the LSD-type substance that medical experts testified led to the death of a former Mississippi State University student.
A large portion of Wednesday morning's proceedings focused on testimony from Mississippi State Medical Examiners Office forensic pathologist Lisa Funte and an out-of-state toxicologist. Funte testified Thomas Parker Rodenbaugh, 22, died in Aug. 2014 from the toxic effects of 25-B, a substance with effect similar to LSD.
Funte said blood tests showed Rodenbaugh had the psychoactive substance of marijuana—THC—in his system, along with diphenhydramine, more commonly known as Benadryl, at the time of his death.
The defense questioned Funte over how many other 25-B cases she had covered, and Funte said she had no experience with the substance until Rodenbaugh's autopsy. The expert witness said she had conducted research to familiarize herself with the substance during the course of the autopsy.
The substance is known to cause hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, acute kidney failure, muscle break down, hallucinations and aggression, Funte testified. During her research, Funte found around 17 cases in which death occurred from the illicit substance. Deaths had been reported after being detected in the bloodstream at the picogram level, 100,000 times smaller than a nanogram.
For more, see the Aug. 4 edition.