Alix Catherine Tichelman, 27, was sentenced to six years in prison
by a Santa Cruz Superior Court judge after she accepted a plea deal
in which a manslaughter charge was reduced to involuntary
manslaughter, a court official said.
She also pleaded guilty to several other charges, including
administering a controlled substance, destroying or concealing
evidence and engaging in prostitution, according to the Santa Cruz
Superior Court.
Prosecutors say Tichelman, a high-priced call girl, injected Forrest
Hayes, 51, with heroin during a tryst aboard his yacht off Santa
Cruz in November 2013.
Prosecutors said surveillance video from the boat shows Tichelman
made no effort to help Hayes, a married father of five who was an
executive at the Google X research lab, and instead stepped over his
body several times and sipped wine before leaving without calling
911.
Tichelman's public defenders, who did not dispute she was a
prostitute, said she had no intention of hurting Hayes and
maintained the drug use had been consensual.
"This was an accident and a panic and she is so, so sorry," Jerry
Christensen, one of Tichelman's attorneys, told reporters after the
sentencing, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
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Tichelman was arrested last year after being contacted by a police
officer posing as a potential client and agreeing to a price in
excess of $1,000 authorities have said.
Hayes and Tichelman are believed to have met through an online
website that pairs young women with older men with money, court
documents said.
Tichelman could have faced 15 years of prison under the original
manslaughter charge.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and
Bill Trott)
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