A pain management doctor was acquitted of first-degree murder in the death of a patient on Oxycontin
“Deonarine’s medical license was suspended following the 2001 death of Michael Labzda, 21. Labzda’s friends said he was snorting crushed OxyContin pills and drinking rum . . .
. . . The attorney also said Labzda’s death was not his client’s fault. Labzda had drunk perhaps 20 beers, three to five rum drinks and snorted crushed OxyContin in the hours before his death, Lubin said.
State prosecutor Barbara Burns told jurors that Labzda was a healthy young man whose only injury – a broken toe – did not warrant a powerful painkiller such as OxyContin.”
