Man Pleads Guilty in OD Death at Fridley Hospital

The man who brought the synthetic drug 2C-E to a Blaine house party last year, leading to a mass-overdose and one death at Fridley's Unity Hospital, pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree murder.

Timothy LaMere, 22, faces a nine-year, nine-month sentence as part of the plea agreement—the maximum under state law.

LaMere told an Anoka County District judge he didn't realize the drugs were illegal, the Star Tribune reported.

Robinson had turned 19 years old four days before the March 17, 2011 party. He died at Unity Hospital at 2 p.m. the next day, about 14 hours after Blaine police responded to a 911 call from a house party in the 9500 block of Monroe Street NE.

By the time police arrived, others from the party had already taken Robinson to Unity, about 2.5 miles south. A Fridley police officer gave Robinson CPR at the hospital, according to Capt. Bob Rewitzer:

On March 17th at 00:49 one of our officers responded to Unity Hospital, 550 Osborne Road NE, on report that a person that had overdosed on drugs at a party in Blaine had been transported to the hospital. The officer found hospital security at the emergency department entrance with a 19-year old man that was not breathing. The officer assisted in performing CPR until the man could be brought into the treatment area.

Prosecutors charged LaMere with third-degree murder on March 22, 2011. (.) His on April 6.

Ten others from the party were sickened by the drug.

The at Unity and Mercy hospitals. In May 2011, Allina Hospitals and Clinics fired 28 workers at Unity and four at Mercy in Coon Rapids for accessing patient medical records related to the overdose cases.

Jill Robinson, the victim's mother, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

"It's very sad. ... I am completely torn because his family, bless their heart... The loss that they are going through, too, is so sad. ... Tim is not a bad boy, he is just a kid. ... He loved my son and my son loved him. I know in my heart of course he never intended to do any of this."

LaMere's official sentencing is set for May 25.