Kariong: Bradley Hendry pleads guilty to drug supply after fatal overdose of Montana Stephens
A man hid two bags of drugs in his rental car minutes before reporting the fatal overdose of a woman, with whom he had spent the night at a cheap motel.
Central Coast
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A man spirited away two bags containing a commercial quantity of meth and a large amount of butanediol — an industrial solvent often used instead of GHB — minutes before reporting a woman’s fatal overdose, a court has heard.
Bradley Hendry, of Ettalong, faced Gosford District Court last week and pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of meth and a large, but less than a commercial, quantity of butanediol.
An agreed set of facts states the 32-year-old rented a white Toyota Corolla hatchback from AVIS, Gosford, on January 9 last year and booked a room at the Bella Vista Motel, Kariong, on January 18.
“At 3:25pm the accused arrived at the motel and checked into the room with a close female associate, Montana Stephens,” the facts state.
“CCTV footage shows Stephens handing the accused cash, which he uses in combination with cash from his bag to pay for the room.
“Around 7:30pm the accused reports to have passed out on a bed inside the room due to a migraine.
“On 19 January 2023, the accused reports to have woken up sometime in the mid-morning. The accused attempted to wake Stephens but was unsuccessful. Stephens was not breathing and her skin was cold to touch.”
The facts state Hendry was captured on the motel’s CCTV walking along the front at 11.05am, when he went to the car park and placed two bags in the Toyota Corolla.
“The accused then walked back along the same route, returning to the front of the motel,” the facts state.
“At 11.10am, the accused called 000 to report Stephens as deceased.
“An ambulance attended the scene around 11.17am and confirmed Stephens was deceased.”
The facts state Hendry then had another female associate come to the hotel and drive the car across the Central Coast Highway to the Shell service station on the other side of the road, where she parked and walked back to the motel before police arrived.
When officers attended they searched Hendry, who told them the car key in his pocket belonged to the other woman.
The facts state Hendry was wanted on an unrelated warrant and, as he was being loaded into the police vehicle, he yelled out to the other woman: “Make sure you get your car.”
Police found the car parked across the road and seized the two bags he was filmed carrying earlier.
The bags contained two 600mL water bottles filled with a thick clear liquid, 10 resealable plastic bags containing the drug “ice”, a glass ice pipe, and a small plastic syringe commonly used to measure small amounts of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB).
Lab tests found the plastic bags contained 268.43g of meth and the water bottles contained 727.8g of 1,4-butanediol.
Butanediol, also known as “bute”, is an industrial solvent, which naturally converts into GHB in the body and is defined as a border-controlled drug.
Hendry will face court again on July 11 to fix a sentence date.
Friends and family of Ms Stephens, 25, meanwhile held a funeral at Greenways Chapel, Green Point, on February 7.
Her death was recorded as an accidental drug overdose and there is no suggestion Hendry had anything to do with it.
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