DA: Hofstra Student Injected Girlfriend With Heroin, Left Her to Die

A 19-year-old Hofstra University student faces manslaughter and other charges related to his girlfriend’s fatal heroin overdose inside a Hofstra dorm room earlier this year, officials announced Friday.

Joseph Joudah, of Islip Terrace, injected heroin into the left hand of second-year student Olivia McClellan, 19, of California, who was later found dead in her dorm room in Enterprise Hall on April 19, according to acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas.

Joudah was indicted Friday on the following grand jury charges:

• Second degree manslaughter
• Criminally negligent homicide
• Criminal injection of a narcotic drug
• Second degree reckless endangerment
• Seventh degree criminal possession of a controlled substance
• Criminally possessing a hypodermic instrument

On April 18, Joudah and McClellan went back to her dorm room with several bags of heroin, where the two proceeded to inject the drugs at around 6:30 p.m., the DA said. McClellan reportedly started displaying signs of physical distress, including difficulty breathing, uncontrollable shaking of her legs and eyes rolling into the back of her head.

Joudah stayed in the room with McClellan until 9 p.m. and left believing that he was the only person who knew about McClellan’s apparent heroin overdose, according to the DA.

Joudah allegedly attempted to contact McClellan several times that night and the next day, but received no answer. He then anonymously contacted university campus security who responded to McClellan’s dorm room to find her dead on the bed, the DA reports.

Campus officials contacted authorities and a joint investigation between the Nassau County Police Department and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office began.

Autopsy results ruled McClellan’s death to be an overdose: a needle mark was found on her body and there was heroin and prescription medicine in her system, the DA reports.

According to the DA, Joudah had known that McClellan took prescription medication and had previously attempted suicide by taking heroin before he injected her.

“This is a tragic case that reminds us that heroin knows no boundaries,” Singas said in a statement. “This defendant allegedly injected 19-year-old Olivia McClellan with heroin and failed to get her timely help knowing that she was in the throes of an overdose and alone in her room.”

Joudah’s attorney claims the heroin injection was consensual, according to an AP report.

Joudah is being held on $10,000 bond or $5,000 cash bail. He faces a maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top charge.

Image via NCDA