By Dan Simons

Contributing Reporter

Photo credit: David N. Posavetz/The Macomb Daily

Former Oakland University student Amanda Davidson, 19, was sentenced on Oct. 8 in a Mt. Clemens courtroom to three years in prison for distribution of a controlled substance that resulted in a friend’s fatal overdose.

Davidson, of New Baltimore, along with her co-defendant and boyfriend Addison Bade, 20, of Chesterfield Township, both plead guilty to supplying liquid morphine to Charles Szuber, 18, of Columbiaville in Lapeer County.

The two sold Szuber the morphine for $15. He took one to three ounces before going to bed on March 19 and later died in his sleep.

“I’m very sorry for how this has turned out for everyone involved,” Davidson said while at the stand in the Macomb County Circuit Court.

“I can’t believe how my actions have affected everybody,” Davidson said.

Davidson graduated from Anchor Bay High School in 2007 and won the Bay-Rama Fish-Fly festival beauty pageant held in her hometown of New Baltimore.

After receiving an academic scholarship, she attended OU during the Fall 2007 and part of the Winter 2008 semesters. Friends say she was undecided about her major, but was leaning towards a business degree.

“I can’t even describe how much I’ve missed her since they took her,” said Kristina Croes, 19, an English Major attending the University of Michigan and close friend of Davidson’s.

Croes has known Davidson since they were in eighth grade. They were in band together throughout school and both were part of the Key Club in their senior year. Croes keeps in contact with Davidson through letters.

“She’s always been there for her friends. She’s been a strong, intelligent leader and for many a role model,” Croes said.

Circuit Judge Mark Switalski commented that while Davidson had a clean record, she was on a “downward spiral” that lead to a “reckless … stupid thing.”

“She wasn’t a ‘beauty queen gone bad’,” Croes said. “She was a girl with emotional issues, that turned to drugs because her community couldn’t offer any alternatives. Drug abuse in New Baltimore is an epidemic.”

Prosecutors had originally planned on charging Davidson and Bade with distributing a controlled substance that resulted in death, which carries a maximum life sentence.

The sentencing for possession and delivery of less than 50 grams of a controlled substance results in a 3-to-20-year sentence. For Davidson and Bade, this will include a retraining boot camp to take place before the minimum three years is served.

“[Davidson] will pick up after this with some hard earned lessons,” said Switalski after delivering the sentencing.

Defense attorneys initially argued for Davidson and Bade to be sentenced under the Holmes Youthful Trainee which, after serving three years in a special prison for youths between the ages of 17 and 20, would erase the charges from their criminal records.

Davidson was also charged with larceny for stealing the morphine belonging to a terminally ill cancer patient. Switalski ruled that the charge had been served by the 202 days Davidson spent in prison prior to the sentencing.