One of two people accused of trying to get rid of the corpse of a man who died of an apparent drug overdose has pleaded guilty while the other defendant has pleaded not guilty.
Terry L. Ostman, 35, agreed to plead guilty to abuse of a corpse in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to dismiss a witness-tampering charge. She will be sentenced April 22.Thomas E. Coppock, 45, pleaded not guilty Monday to the charge of abuse of a corpse. Trial was set for May 1 before 2nd District Judge Stanton Taylor.
The charges claim that on Feb. 2 the two took the body of Scott L. Hurst, 34, from a party after he died of a heroin overdose.
Coppock also was charged with heroin distribution. He was accused of giving Hurst the heroin.
Ostman said she was coerced by Coppock into taking the body in her car to railroad yards, where the corpse was draped over a rail under a standing string of freight cars. Police believe the idea was that the body would be run over by the train and officials would assume the man had been killed by the train.
The body was found before the rail cars were moved.
Lab tests to determine how much heroin was in the body have not been completed.