About a month before Meaghan Bosch died, another young SMU student was spotted laying unconscious on a bed in James McDaniel's duplex poker room, apparently having been duped into taking downers, according to testimony Friday in the ex-con's federal trial.
In April 2007, Tiffany White, whom McDaniel employed as a card dealer, saw her boss incoherent one day at the Winton Street duplex. She saw a young woman on the bed.
"He told me he took OxyContin," White testified. "He told me he told he gave her [the drug ecstasy, which is a stimulant], but he gave her OxyContin. She was completely unconscious."
Prosecutors cut off White's story there Friday morning. All week, they have been building up to when McDaniel encountered Bosch, who died in May 2007.
Jurors have heard from multiple witnesses, including SMU students, who described McDaniel's campus-area poker rooms, where he also sold cocaine. So far, none have testified they saw Bosch there.
The defense has consistently questioned the credibility of these witnesses, most of whom told jurors they had immunity from prosecution for buying and selling cocaine and other drugs in exchange for their testimony against McDaniel.
Two such witnesses told jurors Thursday they began experimenting with cocaine while in Sigma Phi Epsilon at SMU. They testified that McDaniel was their main supplier, and that he encouraged them to bring him more SMU kids.
"They introduced me to cocaine," testified James Brunk, recalling his decision to begin doing drugs with some of his fraternity brothers about three years ago. He described it as "probably the worst decision of my life."
"Some of my closest friends were doing drugs all the time," he told jurors.
Former SMU student Charlie Tipton testified Thursday that he was also introduced to cocaine by others in the same fraternity. He began buying it from one of McDaniel's card dealers, then from McDaniel himself. He said that he took some of the drugs he bought from McDaniel in the frat house.
On Aug 12, 2006, Tipton bought cocaine from McDaniel about 3 a.m., snorted it and ended up in a Garland park. At about 8 a.m., police were called by people complaining about a man acting suspiciously in the park and talking to them about God. When an officer found him, Tipton still had powder under his nose. The officer found residue in Tipton's vehicle and arrested him.
Tipton told officers that McDaniel gave him the drugs, and told them the address of his Mockingbird Station loft. It's unclear why they never followed up.
After more than a year in a court-ordered drug program, Tipton told jurors Thursday he is now clean. He said he was testifying against McDaniel because it was the right thing to do.
