LEWIS COUNTY, Wash. — A Lewis County man is facing a controlled substance homicide charge after a 31-year-old mother died of an overdose last month.
Deseray Porter was outgoing and never met a stranger, something her family always knew, but would learn just how much.
“She had a very caring soul. She had a lot of friends that we didn't even realize she had until the funeral,” said her grandmother Genevieve Porter.
On July 14, the 31-year-old mother of three's life would be cut short. According to court documents, that night she told her family she was going to pick up a pizza, but after not showing up for work the next day, her grandfather went looking.
He found her and Darrin Noble, who is now charged, unconscious in a car. Porter died at the scene of an overdose. Noble barely survived.
“Just trying to get through," said her grandfather Steve Porter. "I don't know how you get over it. It's been tough. I just keep reliving it over and over again."
Probable cause documents show text messages that indicate Noble supplied the deadly drugs, prompting the controlled substance homicide charge in Lewis County.
Noble pleaded not guilty in court Thursday afternoon, Aug. 31. His trial date is set for Nov. 6.
"Do I think he needs to pay? I do. I would like to see some justice out of this,” said Heather Hoyle, Porter’s aunt.
This type of criminal charge has been rare in Washington courts.
According to King County prosecutors, there have been 16 of those cases charged since 2004.
“That's not a knock on the police at all. That shows how difficult it is to investigate these cases,” said Casey McNerthney with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Cases which can be tough to charge and even harder to convict.
“If you're in that state, it's understandable that people may have multiple drugs in their system. That's very difficult in court to prove exactly which drug and amount and which dealer killed them,” McNerthney said.
In June, King County got its second conviction from a case out of Kirkland, a city that is leading the state along with Bellevue, in this type of case. The suspect in the Kirkland case, John Pollet, was convicted in June and sentenced to 12 months.
“One thing that Bellevue and Kirkland have done so well is looking at each one of these cases as a potential crime scene, and ruling it out later, rather than from the start, because you never get that chance back to come back to the evidence,” McNerthney said.
Jail time for a controlled substance homicide conviction is typically shorter than a murder conviction. Prosecutors note there is no existing charge under state law for attempting to kill someone with a drug delivery.
In King County, the majority of these types of cases have come to prosecutors in the last four years.
There have been other recent cases across western Washington including a Clallam County woman arrested last week for supplying drugs to an inmate who then died of an overdose and remains in jail.
“It's similar to where hate crimes were five years ago," McNerthney said. "When you put more resources towards it, we find more examples of evidence you can take to court."
Now, Porter’s family wants to raise awareness and help people find resources for Narcan in Deseray’s memory.
“I want to make sure that there's not another family that has to feel this loss,” Hoyle said. “It's got to stop somewhere. There's too much going on. There are too many people dying. I don't know why they can't get the message."