Suing over spice: Man's death prompts lawsuit

MUNCIE, Ind. (WISH) - I-Team 8 has the exclusive details on the first lawsuit in Indiana filed over a death connected to the synthetic drug spice.

The synthetic drugs bath salts and spice are fake cocaine and fake marijuana. They are illegal in Indiana. But you can still buy them at some gas stations and convenience stores. Now, one attorney hopes what happened one night in Muncie will help put an end to the sales for good.

Who was Jeremy?

What happened along Ind. 3 in the middle of the night Feb. 1 is now a landmark case for the state of Indiana. 32-year-old Jeremy Chissel was known as fun-loving — the rowdy one.

His brother, Danni Chissel says: "Jeremy was just real outgoing. The kind of guy you wanted to be around," his brother, Danni Chissel, says.

The oldest of three boys, he was a brother, son and dad to his 4-year-old daughter Shayla. As he showed pictures of Jeremy and his daughter, Danny said, "From the time his daughter was born that was Jeremy's whole world.”

The fateful night

Jeremy Chissel and his girlfriend drove her yellow Mustang from New Castle to Muncie. Karissa Campbell, 23, Anderson, admitted to police she took prescription medicine. Then she drove to a Marathon gas station on the edge of the Ball State University campus to buy spice , according to the probable cause affidavit.

“Karissa advised she would normally drive while they smoked the spice because it really messed Jeremy up,” the probable cause affidavit said.

She told police she remembers driving to Indiana 3 but "could not recall any of the details leading to the crash." Crime scene photos show packages of "Mad Hatter" spice were found at the crash site lying next to the dead body of Jeremy Chissel.

Youngest brother Danny identified the body.

"Probably the worst thing I have ever had to do," Danny said.

Afterwards, charging documents show "Karissa admitted she knew it was wrong for them to be purchasing the spice and smoking it. Karissa advised the spice package said, ‘not for internal consumption.’"

Legal action

"These circumstances where we have people dying as a result of the sale of these poisons is exactly why my office is accepting these cases statewide," Muncie attorney B. Joseph Davis says.

Davis has filed the first wrongful death lawsuit from spice in Indiana — and what he believes is only the third in the country. Davis believes everyone played a role in Jeremy Chissel's death: from the manufacturer, to the distributor, to the retailer to the sales clerk who sold it. A focus of the suit: inappropriate labeling. He believes that includes the label: not for human consumption.

"It's obviously deceptive that they've placed that on their label,” Davis says. “That tends to be evidence that they knowingly and intentionally are putting into the marketplace a product that was dangerous."

Gas station connection

According to the lawsuit, the spice that was linked to Jeremy Chissel's death was bought at a Marathon station Feb. 1. That's important to note because I-Team 8’s hidden camera investigation in November prompted a tougher state law passed in March . That new law cracks down on the sale of the drugs, making more of them illegal.

In June, Delaware County sheriff’s deputies raided six gas stations and convenience stores targeting synthetic drugs. Three of the gas stations were Marathons. Several officers confirm to I-Team 8 Marathon temporarily removed the signs and the gas from the raided franchisees.

Marathon declined to comment on that but the company issued this corporate policy change in February: "Marathon is committed to ... identify and eliminate these items from Marathon..." Owner/operators were warned mystery shoppers would be used to spot check violations .

Repeated attempts to reach Karissa Campbell were unsuccessful. She appears to be the first in Indiana criminally charged for causing a crash under the influence of spice. She talks of Jeremy on Facebook saying, "If I cry in the shower no one knows how much I really do miss him. JSC may you be resting forever Peacefully."

Remembering Jeremy

Jeremy's family is left with poetry he wrote.

"You can always be sure your loved ones are with you no matter where you are," Danny said, reading one of his brother’s poems.

His pages and pages of words are now where his family looks for peace. The family attorney looks for change.

“Hopefully Jeremy Chissel can stand for national change and a much safer place,” Davis says.

Davis filed two wrongful death lawsuits this month — the first involving Jeremy Chissel and spice. The second involves a father of three who died in a crash while high on bath salts. Davis claims that the man bought the illegal drug from a store in Muncie that was raided just two weeks later.