PLANO, Texas, June 6, 2008
Convicted Steroids Dealer Shot Dead
Trafficker Gave Names Of Athletes Who Purchased Steroids From Him To NFL Officials
-
David Jacobs walks out of the federal courthouse in Sherman, Texas, after pleading guilty to federal charges of conspiring to distribute thousands of units of anabolic steroids. Jacobs, who recently met with NFL security officials and gave them names of players he said bought steroids from him was found shot to death in his home, police said. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File) (CBS)
-
Interactive Sports Doping Find out more about drug testing and performance-enhancing drugs.
Early Thursday morning, Plano police made a welfare check and found 35-year-old David Jacobs and 30-year-old Amanda Jo Earhart-Savell dead. Police say both had been shot to death.
Officer Rick McDonald, a police spokesman, said the officers were making a welfare check after relatives of Earhart-Savell expressed concern about her whereabouts.
He says Plano detectives aren't releasing information about whether the deaths were a double homicide or a murder-suicide, whether a weapon was found near the bodies, or any other details.
Jacobs was sentenced to three years probation and fined $25,000 on May 1 after pleading guilty last year in federal court in Dallas to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute anabolic steroids.
Hank Hockeimer, Jacobs' attorney, has told The Dallas Morning News that Jacobs then met with NFL security officials in the Dallas area May 21 and gave them names of players he said bought steroids from him. Hockeimer didn't immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press on Thursday.
Hockeimer has declined to publicly say which players bought steroids from Jacobs. But Jacobs has publicly said he sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of performance-enhancing drugs to former Dallas Cowboy Matt Lehr in 2006 and 2007. Lehr has also played for Tampa Bay and Atlanta.
Lehr's attorney, Paul Coggins, has said the player hasn't used banned substances since he was suspended for four games during the 2006 season while playing for Atlanta, and has since passed NFL drug tests. The attorney has also said Jacobs' allegations are retaliation because Lehr wouldn't pay Jacobs' legal fees.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello offered condolences to the families of Jacobs and Earhart-Savell and said the league was reviewing information provided by Jacobs in two interviews with security officials.
"It is premature to comment on any specific player at this time," Aiello said in a statement. "Anyone found to have violated our policies will be subject to discipline, including suspension."
Neighbors who were still gathered at the scene about 12 hours after officers arrived said they became aware of Jacobs through television news reports, but didn't know him well. They said they didn't see any suspicious activity or hear any gunshots.
One neighbor who reached out to Jacobs after his guilty plea by asking him to warn children about the dangers of drugs said she didn't believe police when they told her he was dead.
"Knowing somebody died this way, it's hard to take," Yeharerwerk Gashaw said. "I was shocked."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
More From U.S.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
Posted by dobbershome
If true, then 90% of them are un-professional and they don''t belong in professional sports.
Centuries before steroids came into being
sports were pure.
Just because perps have introduced them into sports in recent decades is not reason to accept them long-term.
I can''t imagine any normal father or mother wanting their children to ruin their health just to cheat at sports. And where does the cheating stop? What aspect of life is off limits to cheating?
As LloydBest1 pointed out, the ones who are not caught outright will be, in the end, caught-up by their own misdeeds, though hopefully they will not ''Benoit'' their family (nor anyone else) in the process.
O ye of little faith.
They''ll go down. Perhaps not the way most of us think but they WILL go down.
The perfromance enhancers have onerous side effects we are only just now beginning to recognize. The ''roid rage, the back acne, the filbert sized testes; we all know about those. But add to that steroid implication in liver disorders, haywire serum cholesterol, blood clots, bouts of suicidal depression, increase in cancer incidence, heart problems, strokes.....You''re talking about a festival of aches, pains and crippling health issues that will never fully go away.
Maybe there''ll be no prosecutions in this case, but I can imagine the ghosts of Lyle Alzado, Chris Benoit and Ken Caminiti calling out, "don''t do them; it''s not worth it"
That pretty much would eliminate 90% of all professional athletes.
--------------------------------
Which is irrelevant.
Murderers are perps.
Athletes who use steroids are perps.
In a just society, both need to be apprehended and pay appropriate penalties, if guilty.
If you can''t perform with the best based on your nature-bestowed abilities you don''t belong with the best.
--------------------------------
Do you mean steroids or hitmen?
- by dobbershome June 6, 2008 2:26 PM EDT
- Almost all professional and college athletes use them anyway. If you don''t believe that your living in denial.
- Reply to this comment
See all 11 Comments