Daughter who injected father with heroin guilty of manslaughter

A woman accused of injecting her father with heroin before he died in an Ocean City hotel has been convicted of manslaughter, according to the state's attorney's office.

Justeen Nichole Wittaker, 29, of Dover was given a sentence Wednesday of 10 years, suspend all but three, for her involvement in the October 2017 death of her father, 50-year-old Nathaniel Whittaker, the Worcester County State's Attorney's Office said.

Ocean City police detectives responded to the Americana Hotel Oct. 24, 2017, for a man reportedly suffering cardiac arrest, according to the state's attorney's office, and found Nathaniel Whittaker lying face up on a hotel bed.

Emergency medical personnel unsuccessfully attempted life-saving efforts, and the state's attorney's office said he was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators then searched the room, recovering several items indicative of heroin consumption and learned that Whittaker was sharing the room with his daughter.

During an interview with detectives, the state's attorney's office said Justeen Whittaker admitted to injecting her father with heroin after he asked her to because he was too intoxicated to do it himself. The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy determined he died of a fentanyl overdose.

Following her three-year prison sentence, Justeen Whitaker will also be subject to two years of supervised probation.

“The community needs to know that as quickly as heroin can steal a life, this Office will seek to take your freedom if you knowingly deal, distribute or administer drugs and it results in someone’s death," Interim State's Attorney Bill McDermott said in a news release.

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