The state of Alaska has announced that it has dropped the manslaughter charge against the man accused of the manslaughter death of 14-year-old Jena Dolstad who passed away on December 29th, 2011.

The move by the state to drop charges of manslaughter against 28-year-old Sean Warner was made to allow the U.S. Department of Justice to continue with its charges in Federal Court it was announced. Federal prosecutors formally charged Warner and his co-defendant, Max Jewett with Drug Trafficking Conspiracy and Heroin Distribution on Monday.

The news that the state was dropping the manslaughter charges against Warner came after Warner’s lawyers called for the state to dismiss the indictment and drop the charges. His lawyers also requested a new evidentiary hearing in the manslaughter case saying prosecutors withheld evidence. Federal prosecutors disagreed with Warner’s lawyers dismissal arguments and called them factually misleading.

According to Anchorage Police, Warner injected 14-year-old Dolstad with “China White” heroin on December 23rd, 2013 after Warner and two other men picked her up an brought her to his house. After injecting her with heroin in his bedroom, the men did not check on her until the next morning witnesses at the scene told police. When she was checked on, she was found facedown in a pool of vomit. Warner administered the drug Suboxone in an effort to revive here. Efforts were unsuccessful.

After more delays, 911 was called after the girl began convulsing at 1:30 pm, and the young girl was finally transported to the hospital, Dolstad would linger at the hospital without regaining consciousness for six days. She remained on a respirator, suffering from heart and brain damage until her death on December 29th, 2011.

The decision to drop the state charge of manslaughter was made because a Federal conviction will result in much more severe penalties. The U.S. Department of Justice has investigated Warner and Jewett for the past two years and found that they sold meth,cocaine, and heroin from Warner’s home near the Turnagain Elementary school. Federal prosecutors are confident that they can show a link between Dolstad’s death and the drug trafficking conspiracy leveled at Warner and Jewell.

The two defendants face a minimum of 20 years for conspiracy as well as a maximum of life in prison for selling drugs near a school.

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