Aloha Man Indicted for Friend's Death After Heroin Use

Mr. Corzo-Bernal had used heroin a few times but was not a regular user.

Kaleb Abraham was indicted on Manslaughter charges last week. Photo: Washington County Sheriff

(ALOHA, Ore.) - A Washington County man was arrested last week after a grand jury indicted him on Manslaughter charges stemming from a fatal drug overdose. Eluard Corzo-Bernal died earlier this year after an overdose on heroin left him unconscious and not breathing.

A Washington County grand jury indicted 21-year old Kaleb Abraham, of Aloha, last Thursday, October 8th for Manslaughter in the second degree and several other charges related to the May 19th death of 21-year old Eluard Corzo-Bernal, from Aloha.

Detectives from the Washington County Sheriff's Office Violent Crimes Unit and members of the Westside Interagency Narcotics Team (WIN) worked together to bring this case to the grand jury after Mr. Corzo-Bernal died of an apparent drug overdose.

Detectives gathered evidence that show Mr. Corzo-Bernal and Mr. Abraham lived at the same address in Aloha, Oregon.

On May 19, 2009, Mr. Corzo-Bernal agreed to have Mr. Abraham inject him with heroin. Mr. Abraham had obtained the heroin and was a regular user at the time. Mr. Corzo-Bernal had used heroin a few times but was not a regular user.

Corzo-Bernal was injected between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. and sometime before midnight he stopped breathing. One of Mr. Abraham's roommates woke him up at about midnight and alerted him to Corzo-Bernal's condition.

Abraham proceeded to do CPR on Corzo-Bernal and restored his breathing, although he was still not coherent, Abraham then went back to bed.

At about 3:00 a.m., Abraham was awakened again and told that Corzo-Bernal wasn't breathing again. Abraham attempted CPR a second time but was not successful.

Instead of calling 911, police say Abraham decided to drive Corzo-Bernal to the hospital himself, wasting vital time when paramedics could be treating Corzo-Bernal. Abraham did not want to call 911 because he didn't want the police at his house where drugs and drug paraphernalia would have been located.

Corzo-Bernal died several days later in the hospital.