Expert: Drug-Induced Seizure Unlikely in Death of Felicia Lee

The high level of GHB in the blood of Felicia Lee at the time of her death could be evidence that the 320 blunt force trauma wounds found on the 31-year-old former adult movie star did not come from a seizure, an expert testified Tuesday.

The defense attorneys for Brian Lee Randone, for allegedly beating and suffocating Lee to death in a Monrovia apartment in 2009, have argued that Lee died of an overdose of the drug GHB, which is commonly known as the date rape drug.

The attorneys while on the drug.

But an expert called to the stand by prosecutor Philip Wojdak testified in Pasadena Superior Court Tuesday that GHB users typically don't get seizures while intoxicated on the drug. Instead, such seizures usually happen during withdrawals from GHB, according to Dr. Cyrus Rangan, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health's Bureau of Toxicology.

Lee was not in withdrawal at the time of her death and in fact had a high level of GHB in her system that commonly sends people into a moderate to deep sleep, Rangan testified.

"When you're intoxicated you're sedated and you have respiratory depression," Rangan said. "I've never seen (patients on GHB) have a seizure while they're intoxicated."

Wojdak asked Rangan if a seizure could cause the "hundreds" of wounds found on Lee's body when she died. The doctor said seizure injuries are usually relatively minor.

"In general it's just a few bruises on the body and occasionally a broken bone," Rangan said.

Much of the testimony from Rangan and Dr. Ajay Panchal, the medical examiner who performed Lee's autopsy, has . People who regularly use the drug can build up tolerances to it, and a fatal dose for one person might only sedate another person, Rangan and Panchal testified.

It is impossible to know whether the level of GHB measured in Lee's eye fluid after death--311 micrograms per millileter of blood--was a fatal amount because her body may or may not have been able to tolerate that amount, Rangan said.

"This level of 300--it's right there in that range of people who die and people who live," he said.

Panchal ruled Lee's death a homicide, and .

Trace amounts of cocaine were found in Lee's body at the time of her death, but the amount was a "negligible" level that showed Lee probably ingested the drug more than 24 hours before she died, Rangan said.

During cross-examination, Ed Rucker, one of Randone's two attorneys, challenged Rangan's expertise in GHB, noting that he had not been published on the subject and had never treated a patient who died from a GHB overdose.

Before Rangan took the stand, Wojdak called Kenneth Struckus, a former Monrovia firefighter and paramedic who found Lee lying naked on a bathroom floor at Randone's apartment in the 500 block of West Duarte Road in Sept. 11, 2009.

Struckus said the door to the apartment was locked when paramedics arrived. When Randone eventually opened the door, he was "excited" and "agitated" and said he'd been delayed because he was trying to give Lee CPR.

Wojdak then displayed a photo of Lee's body lying on the bathroom floor on a projector screen in the courtroom. Lying on her back with her knees pulled up and to the side, Wojdak asked Struckus if the positioning of Lee's body looked like someone had just performed CPR on her.

"No," Struckus responded.

Struckus said he saw evidence of blunt force trauma on Lee's body, which paramedics did not try to resuscitate because Randone said she had not been breathing for about 30 minutes.

"I noticed that her legs were discolored and had several little cuts on them," he said.

Testimony is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.