Widow Denies Giving Husband
Sherry Enema
February 10, 2005 5:15 p.m. EST
GALVESTON, Texas - A woman who has been indicted on a charge of negligent homicide denies that she provided the alcohol that led to her husband's death from a sherry enema.
Tammy Jean Warner said Wednesday that her husband, Michael Warner, 58, not only had a longtime alcohol problem but had been
addicted to enemas since he was a child.
She said that he gave himself the enema that led to his death May 21.
"There's no way I could have gave my husband that enema, no way," the Lake Jackson woman said during an interview at her attorney's office.
A Brazoria County grand jury indicted her in January on a charge of negligent homicide. Prosecutors claim she provided alcohol for Warner even though she knew he'd been warned that it could kill him.
Warner, who is free on $30,000 bond, is also charged with
destroying his will. "There was no will," she said.
An autopsy report said his blood-alcohol level was 0.47 percent, almost six times the legal intoxication limit for operating a motor vehicle.
Investigators said medical problems kept him from ingesting alcohol by drinking it, but his widow said he would drink as well.
"If he had died through consuming too much alcohol through a wine glass, we wouldn't be here," said Warner's attorney, Jyll Rekoff.
Rekoff said Warner will plead not guilty. The case is scheduled to go to trial in July in Angleton.
If convicted, Warner faces up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each of the two charges.
