DALLAS — A man accused of being the supplier in the overdose death of a Southern Methodist University student has been convicted on drug and weapons charges.
A federal jury in Dallas on Friday convicted 48-year-old James McDaniel.
Jurors decided the Dallas man provided cocaine, methamphetamine and oxycodone leading to the 2007 death of 21-year-old Meghan Bosch.
Her body was discovered in a portable toilet in Hewitt.
McDaniel was convicted of maintaining a drug-involved premise, possession with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine, possession with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death, and two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
Sentencing is Sept. 8. McDaniel faces a maximum life prison term.
Two women testified that McDaniel also drugged them.
Also on Friday, a third woman told jurors McDaniel told her he had duped another woman into taking a depressant after the witness saw the woman unconscious on a bed at one of McDaniel’s poker rooms.
Prosecutors presented no evidence that McDaniel sexually assaulted any of the women.
In court documents, though, prosecutors have claimed McDaniel, 48, drugged and raped up to a dozen women.
Prosecutors say McDaniel, who had been on parole since 2001 after serving two decades in prison for killing a former Dallas police officer, targeted SMU students with his poker and cocaine operation. Bosch was one of them, prosecutors said.
McDaniel maintains he was not involved in Bosch’s death and denies he dealt drugs or committed any sexual assaults.
Testimony in the trial that began Tuesday has revealed that as many as 15 students a day were allegedly buying cocaine from McDaniel.
Young females, evidence has shown, were McDaniel’s focus, and he sought to gain their trust. He gave away cocaine and other drugs, according to testimony. McDaniel once loaned cash to a woman to pay her rent, her roommate said.
Two witnesses, a former Wade College design student in Dallas and a University of North Texas student, testified that McDaniel offered and gave them free cocaine. They each said that after ingesting it, they didn’t remember anything and awakened the next morning feeling disoriented.
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