12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 14, 2008

By TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News
[1]

A Dallas County jury this morning will continue deliberating the fate of a man accused of causing the death of his girlfriend's brother by giving the boy cheese heroin.

Deleon Vanegas, 20, was originally charged with murder in the death of 15-year-old Fernando Cortez Jr. But the charge was changed last month to delivery of a controlled substance to a minor, a second-degree felony. If convicted, Mr. Vanegas could be sentenced to life in prison if jurors rule that the heroin killed Fernando, and if they determine the drug acted as a deadly weapon.

Mr. Vanegas' one-day trial began Tuesday morning with his attorney, Heath Hyde, calling the teenager's death an accidental overdose. Mr. Hyde said his client and Fernando were both drug users and shared what they had on March 30, 2007.

Testimony showed that Fernando gave Mr. Vanegas some Xanax, an antidepressant, that day. And later that same day Mr. Vanegas, who was 19 at the time, gave cheese heroin to his 16-year-old girlfriend, Bianca Cortez, and Fernando. Fernando went to sleep that night and never woke up. His body was found the next day.

Read the entire article HERE [2].