Shooting up heroin at NASA might give man 2nd chance

ACCOMAC, Va. — A man visiting NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on a springtime Saturday with his family picked the wrong place to hit the needle — the men's restroom at the visitor's center.

But Charles David Russell's need for heroin "to feel normal" March 19 while having fun with his wife and three kids at the Chincoteague Island, Va., satellite launch site and federal research center could help him in the long run. If the 35-year-old from Delmar, Md., successfully completes Accomack County Circuit Court's first-offender program that requires a year on probation and 100 hours of community service, he won't have a felony drug conviction on his record.

Russell told the judge last week that he went to the bathroom to use what he thought would be a small amount of heroin but remembers nothing after injecting the drug.

His heroin turned out to be mixed with fentanyl, a potent and potentially lethal opioid anesthesia.

He may have blacked out but was not unconscious, Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Brenner said. Instead, Russell began kicking a toilet, breaking it and causing serious flooding, and many visitors witnessed his behavior.

NASA security officers said Russell couldn't speak in complete sentences when they took him into custody. But Brenner said Russell nodded yes when the officers asked if the bag and syringes they found on the baby-changing station contained heroin.

Russell spent seven days in jail, and his lawyer told Judge W. Revell Lewis III that Russell, who works 50 to 70 hours at a steel fabrication company in Delmar, has not used drugs since then.

“The officers said you were in an altered state of mind," Lewis said. "It is fortunate for you and your family you are here.”

Russell pleaded guilty to unauthorized possession of drug paraphernalia and damaging the bathroom, a $903.86 tab whose total was just under the $1,000 threshold for a felony. Lewis sentenced Russell to time served, suspending two concurrent 60-day sentences, but the man also must pay restitution and $1,788 in court costs.

His next milestone will be a Sept. 14 court date next year. That will be when Lewis decides whether Russell has met the obligations of his probation and stayed off drugs.

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