By RODNEY HART

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

A Quincy man pleaded guilty Wednesday to the drug-induced homicide of a high school senior last summer and faces up to 13 1/2 years in prison.

As first reported Wednesday at www.whig.com, Caleb Walker, 20, pleaded guilty in connection with the August 2007 death of 17-year-old Shanea Jacobs. Authorities say Jacobs died of an overdose of MS Contin, a potent time-release form of morphine usually taken every 12 hours for chronic pain.

Judge Scott Walden ordered that Walker's $25,000 bond be revoked. Walker will remain in the Adams County Jail until his June 15 sentencing. In exchange for the guilty plea, Walker could get between six and 13 1/2 years in prison for the Class X felony, which carries a normal maximum penalty of 30 years.

Adams County First Assistant State's Attorney Farha said that had the case gone to trial, evidence would have shown Walker supplied a 15-year-old boy with the drug, a powerful form of morphine normally associated with cancer patients.

The juvenile pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last month and will be sentenced in juvenile court June 4. He could be held in the state juvenile corrections system until he is 21.

Jacobs would have been a senior at Quincy Notre Dame High School this year. She had four times the lethal dose of the MS Contin in her system, Farha said. She was declared dead Aug. 10 at Blessing Hospital after a 911 call from her family brought emergency personnel to the Jacobs home in the 1400 block of Monroe.

Walker worked as a pharmacy technician at the Walgreens store at 18th and Broadway in Quincy from October 2006 until Aug. 14, 2007.

Farha said pharmacy loss prevention staff determined a number of 200-milligram MS Contin pills were missing, and Walker admitted he took the expired pills and gave them to the juvenile to sell.

Farha said Jacobs was out on the evening of Aug. 9, 2007, and said she didn't feel well. Farha said the juvenile gave Jacobs the pills, and Jacobs thought they were Oxycontin, a less potent painkiller.

Toxicology reports from Jacobs' autopsy showed she had 790 nanograms of the substance in her system, about four times the lethal dose, Farha said.

MS Contin is usually given to hospice patients "in the last days of their lives," Farha said. "Usually they've been on some kind of morphine regimen when they are using it."

Farha said Walker had access to various kinds of medications while employed as a pharmacy technician at Walgreens but he did not have authority to dispense medications.

Sixteen members of Jacobs' family and other friends attended Wednesday's hearing. There was some quiet crying from some members but no outburst when Walker admitted he was guilty.

Walker waived his right to a jury trial Friday, and the guilty plea was expected.

His attorney, Public Defender Ed Downey, asked Walden not to revoke his client's bond, saying Walker had cooperated with authorities, attended every court hearing and "had some personal business to attend to before going to the Department of Corrections."

Walden then concurred with Farha's request to revoke the bond.

-- rhart@whig.com/221-3370