Man headed to court in heroin injection

OGDEN — A man charged with injecting heroin into his hospitalized friend's IV will make his first court appearance next month, police said.

Ryan Knighton, 23, was visiting a female friend at Ogden Regional Medical Center in August when he went out to his car and returned with "an illegal substance," said Weber County Sheriff's Lt. John Morrow. Morrow said Knighton then went to his friend's room, "placed a syringe into her IV and shot heroin" into the woman.

He said he couldn't say whether or not the victim had asked Knighton to inject the drugs, but the injection did cause the victim to stop breathing.

The woman's monitors then alerted nurses to the situation, and the woman later recovered and was released from the hospital, Morrow said. Knighton fled from the hospital, but police were able to pick him up the following day and interview him.

He was charged in 2nd District Court last week with distribution of or arranging to distribute a controlled substance, a second-degree felony; and aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, for the Aug. 4 incident.

Morrow said the charges were delayed because some of the evidence in the case had to be sent to the state crime lab for analysis. A summons has been issued requiring Knighton to appear at a court hearing Dec. 8.

— Emiley Morgan