Editorial: Drug death cases

Liebig, who lived with his parents in their Port Royal house before his arrest stemming from the second death in April, stands to serve between 10 to 13 years in prison.

Though the imminent resolution to the federal drug charges comes swiftly and decisively, what happened in court in Fort Myers this past week ought to represent a start. Nothing more, nothing less.

Liebig still faces separate, state charges for drug possession in both cases. He has yet to be charged in the actual deaths, although the federal case seems to move investigators and prosecutors closer to establishing him as the link between the drugs and the dead women. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and actually give heroin or Xanax to Jennifer Robinson, 19.

She was found dead in his bed on July 8, 2002. The second woman, Sara Gambaccini, 24, was found dead there on April 5, only a week after prosecutors suspended trying to link Liebig to the first death.

Liebig's lawyer in the federal case said the guilty plea allows everyone to "move on with their lives." Poor choice of words. Everyone involved in this web of drug abuse and death does not get to "move on with their lives."

That is why the public will be watching keenly as a judge in Orlando sentences Liebig on Jan. 30 on the federal charges, and as the other, state charges come to justice at trial as early as Nov. 24.