Alabama Woman Pleads Guilty in Overdose Case

By LINDELL KAY
Daily News Staff
An Alabama woman pleaded guilty to manslaughter Thursday in the 2006 drug overdose death of a Camp Lejeune Marine.
Belinda McDonald pleaded guilty to the charges of involuntary manslaughter, trafficking in opium and selling Oxicotin in connection with the death of Pvt. Jason Beaird. McDonald was sentenced to 7ﾽ to 9 years in prison by Senior Resident Onslow County Superior Court Judge Charles Henry.
Prosecutors said Beaird was found unresponsive in his barracks and later died at the Naval Hospital on Dec. 9, 2006.
Beairds manner of death was ruled accidental due to drug toxicity due to excess fentanyl, according to autopsy reports.
Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents received confidential reliable information that McDonald was involved in the death of Beaird. Members of the Jacksonville Police Department Special Operations Division assisted NCIS with making three controlled buys of painkillers from McDonald, prosecutors said.
McDonald was arrested in January 2007 on drug charges. She admitted to NCIS that she sold three fentanyl patches to Beaird a few hours before he died, said Assistant District Attorney Rene Reilly.
Toxicology reports later confirmed Beaird died of a fentanyl overdose.
McDonalds defense attorney, Wally Paramore of Jacksonville, told the court that his client was brought to Onslow County from a small Alabama town by a husband who later abandoned her, and she became a drug addict who sold narcotics to support her habit.
It is really a terrible series of events that gets us here, he said.
Paramore complimented NCIS on their investigation, calling it overwhelming.
McDonald told the court she had no one to blame but herself for what happened.
I made my own decisions, she said. Im not putting it off on anybody.