A man who is currently serving time over the death of 18-year-old Rachel Bowdler who overdosed in 2001 was yesterday charged with dealing in drugs at the law courts on Wednesday.
Jason Decelis, 37, pleaded not guilty to the possession of cocaine and heroin with the intent to sell them at the Corradino Correctional Facility.
Police said a woman gave Mr Decelis drugs while he was in a court room on Wednesday for a pending drug-related court case against him.
The woman – Rita Zammit, 57, from St Paul’s Bay – was arraigned separately before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja and charged with trafficking in the drugs by allegedly giving them to Mr Decelis.
They then found Mr Decelis to be in the possession of five grams of heroin, 10 grams of cocaine and 99 steroids
Both are pleading not guilty.
Mr Decelis, who was represented by lawyer Tonio Azzopardi, was sent back to jail while Ms Zammit, represented by lawyer Frank Cassar, was granted bail against a €3,000 deposit and a personal guarantee of €9,000.
The prosecution, led by police inspector Nikolai Sant, is claiming that police officers present in the court room on Wednesday noticed Ms Zammit give Mr Decelis something. They then found Mr Decelis to be in the possession of five grams of heroin, 10 grams of cocaine and 99 steroids.
Mr Decelis together with his parents Carmel and Conċetta, had been jailed after they were found guilty of murder by omission by failing to take Ms Bowdler to hospital when she suffered an overdose.
Ms Bowdler’s lifeless body was found by a farmer in a field in an area known as Ras il-Ġebel, limits of Mġarr, on May 13, 2001.
During the trial by jury in June 2006, Ms Decelis was jailed for 15 years, her son Jason for 25, and Mr Decelis was imprisoned for one-and-a-half years as he was cleared of murder but found guilty of involuntary homicide.
In February last year, David Gatt, the man who sold Ms Bowdler the fatal dose of heroin, was sentenced to four years and three months in jail for involuntary homicide and fined €2,329 after admitting the charges.
At the trial of the Decelis family, the jury heard that Jason Decelis had met Ms Bowdler the day before she was found dead. The two of them had gone to his mother’s flat in Buġibba.
At about 6pm, the young woman lost consciousness and Jason Decelis panicked and phoned his father, who, after arriving at the flat, began wetting Ms Bowdler’s face in an attempt to revive her.
At around 10.30pm, his estranged wife arrived home and found him trying to wake her up.
A woman gave Mr Decelis drugs while he was in a court room for a pending drug-related court case against him
Since they were separated, Mr Decelis left the apartment for his Pietà flat, where he spent the night worrying about the young woman.
Ms Decelis stayed up all night tending to the girl and the following morning, at about 6am, her husband phoned to check on the young woman and then went back to Buġibba where he heard Ms Bowdler was still in a bad shape.
As Ms Decelis realised that Ms Bowdler was no longer breathing, she decided that the young woman’s body had to be taken out of her apartment.
Carmel and Jason Decelis carried her down the stairs and on to the back seat of their car. When they arrived in a field in Mġarr they laid the young woman on the ground and drove back home.