Langley’s Carson Crimeni was given as many as 13 doses of MDMA on the day he died, according to the Crown and defense in the sentencing trial of the young man charged in his August 2019 death.
The offender, who cannot be named because he was under age 18 at the time of the offense, appeared in a courtroom in New Westminster today (Thursday, Sept. 14) and is to return on Friday, Sept. 15.
“The cause of death for Carson was acute MDMA intoxication,” said Matt Stacey, the Crown counsel.
The proceedings included an agreed statement of facts.
The court heard that Crimeni, who had turned 14 just a month before, bought one dose of MDMA, also known as molly or ecstasy, from the then-17-year-old offender, a known drug dealer. Some time later the boy asked for a second, single dose.
The offender told Crimeni he would need a double dose to feel anything, but gave him far more than two doses. The court heard how the total amount Carson ingested that day may have been equivalent to as much as 13 doses, and was likely at least a whole gram.
A single dose is about a tenth of a gram.
Even after the first dose, Crimeni was seriously intoxicated, and a group of teens, including the offender, laughed at the boy.
Some time after he was given the second, larger dose, the offender, who knew Carson was between Grade 8 and 9 at the time, left him alone.
Videos that circulated on social media showed Carson was in a bad state. Stacey said that while he was upright, he was drenched in sweat, his lips were white, his teeth were chattering, and he was spasming.
He was found hours later by three other youths behind the baseball diamonds in a park near Walnut Grove Secondary. They immediately phoned 911, and first police, then paramedics arrived and administered immediate aid. Carson was rushed to Royal Columbian Hospital.
His body temperature was 42° Celsius, or 107.6° Farenheit. He went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived.
An autopsy later found his bloodstream contained the equivalent of about 10 single adult doses, well over the threshold to cause a lethal overdose.
The offender told others at the time that he gave Carson “way more” than double the first, Stacey told the court.
After he came forward to police, a search of the offender’s home turned up cannabis, more than 100 doses of LSD, residue of MDMA, cannabinoids, and hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms. There was more than $2,500 in cash as well.
The Crown is asking for three-year sentence for the offender. Under the Crown’s request, two of those years would in prison.
More than a dozen friends and family of Carson were in court, including father Aron and grandfather Darrel Crimeni.
“I loved my son more than anything in the world, and I struggle to find purpose,” Aron said through tears in his victim impact statement.
He described being at the hospital, holding his son’s hand, crying and begging doctors to help Carson.
“I constantly wonder what he would be like as he grew, how our relationship as father and son would have grown,” he said.
Darrel’s statement, read by Crown lawyer John Baharustani, described his feelings at the scene where Carson was found on the ground, police trying to help him.
“It will haunt me for the rest of my life… I miss him with all my heart, especially his laugh. I’ve been crying for four years,” it read.
Three other statements read by the Crown were by Carson’s aunt and two siblings.
The Crown said psychiatric reports show the offender showed some remorse but also deflected blame.
“He appeared to have little insight into why the community was so upset by the offence,” Stacey said, noting that the crime shocked the community.
The crime was considered very serious, and although the offender had no criminal record, he was “a fairly sophisticated drug dealer,” said Stacey.
Among the main aggravating factors that argue for a longer sentence, Stacey said that the offender both knew how young Carson was, and also lied about the amount in the second dose.
“He appears to have little insight into why he did what he did.”
There is a moderate to high risk of reoffend, according to one psychological examination.
There is no indication that the offender was subject to abuse or deprivation growing up, and he had a relatively normal childhood.
He was diagnosed as a child with ADHD and was using MDMA and magic mushrooms around the time of the offense. However, he has been clean since and has a job.
The defence is asking for three years of custody and a supervision order, the same as the Crown, but wants only 12 to 18 months in prison, to the Crown’s request for two years in prison.
As the offender is now 21, he would serve any prison time in an adult facility, in the provincial prison system.
Carson’s family, including father Aron, had always maintained that someone had given the boy a lethal amount of drugs.
After an extensive investigation that included interviews with more than 100 witnesses by Langley RCMP, Crown prosecutors charged one suspect with manslaughter.
In May of this year, almost four years after Carson’s death, the accused pleaded guilty.
The trial had a 45-minute interruption in the afternoon, when the offender threw up in the prisoner’s box.
Throughout the morning, he had been fidgeting in the box, but when court resumed at 2 p.m. after the lunch break, he was more agitated, frequently rocking slightly, leaning back and forth, and several times leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, and looking at the floor.
Justice Kathleen Ker noticed and asked if was okay. The offender indicated he was, but accepted a cup of water from his lawyers.
A few minutes later, he threw up.
The proceedings were moved to a different court and resumed. His lawyer said the issue was nerves.
As part of the agreement to plead guilty, the offender will be sentenced as a youth. If the case had gone to trial and he had been found guilty, the judge could have decided to sentence him as either a youth or an adult.
Under youth sentencing rules, the maximum sentence could be three years.
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• READ MORE: Carson Crimeni laid to rest
• READ MORE: Langley teen’s death on social media, investigations launched
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