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By Sam Lounsberry
Reporter-Herald Staff Writer
Windsor police arrested a 31-year-old Wellington woman Sunday on suspicion of stealing a patient’s morphine pills while working as a nursing assistant for a man on hospice.
Erinn Morgan Smith is facing two counts of felony drug possession, felony aggravated robbery of a controlled substance, felony theft against an at-risk person by someone in a position of trust and petty offense possession of drug paraphernalia.
Windsor police contacted Smith at 3:45 p.m. at the patient’s residence in the 7300 block of Ballcarrick Court, and discovered a bottle of morphine pills with a dosage of 100 milligrams per five milliliters inside Smith’s backpack in her Subaru station wagon, an arrest affidavit for Smith said.
Erinn Morgan Smith
Officers Robert Ball and Byron Kastilahn spoke with Smith and Suzanne Yoke, who had called police to the home after she noticed Smith acting strange and suspected her of stealing the drugs, the affidavit said.
Smith failed to notice Kastilahn as he approached the women on the porch of the residence, she was not making sense as she spoke with Yoke, and Yoke had to point to Kastilahn so Smith saw the policeman was present, the affidavit said.
“Erinn began telling me about some male who didn’t have photographs of his injuries, and she said her fingerprints would not be found in her car,” Kastilahn wrote in the affidavit. “Her statements to me had no frame of reference and were severely disorganized,”
The morphine found in her backpack belonged to 75-year-old Stephen Yoke, who is in hospice and in Smith’s care from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Officers also found suspected methamphetamine in her backpack.
A judge set a $1,500 cash, property or surety bond for Smith on Monday, and she remained at the Larimer County Jail as of Tuesday afternoon. She is due for a court appearance 8:30 a.m. Friday in front of Eighth Judicial District Judge Julie Kunce Field.
Windsor police Lt. Richard Zeigler said hs is unsure whether Smith could be a suspect in other cases of drugs disappearing from patients of in-home medical or hospice care, or if the incident involving Yoke is isolated.