If only Justin Sides, a 2007 Weatherford High School graduate, had not taken methadone given to him as a recreational drug by a friend, he would be alive today.

Sides, an 18-year-old standout WHS football player, died June 9, hours after taking six 10-millogram tablets of methadone that he ground up and snorted for pleasure, according to affidavits filed by investigators into his death.

Sides didn’t know that he would die when he took the drugs.

The state medical examiner’s office ruled his death as accidental due to a methadone overdose.

The suppliers of the drugs have been charged with second degree murder.

They are:

•Joel “Joey” Boyer, 22, of Weatherford, charged with killing Sides by knowingly providing eight tablets of methadone and failing to tell him the methadone was double the strength as the previous dose.

•Melissa Gatlin Gilbert, a former nurse known as “Soccer Mom,” charged with accessory to murder for selling methadone to Boyer.

•Shane Thigpen, 17, charged with second degree murder,

Thigpen is at large and is being sought on an outstanding warrant with bond set at $200,000 bond, according to the Custer County Sheriff’s Department.

Boyer has already been arraigned and is out of jail on $100,000 bond.

Gilbert was scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Monday and was being held on $100,000 bond, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

According to Officer Steve Moss of the Sheriff’s Department, the story began to unfold when he interviewed Kimberly Bearden, Sides’ girlfriend.

Bearden said she had spoken with Sides, who had been at her home to watch TV and was complaining about not feeling well.

“Justin said his stomach was hurting, and Kimberly noticed that his eyes did not look normal, and Justin was just acting kind of strange,” Moss said in an affidavit. “Justin said he was going home to lie down, and Kimberly received a phone call from (him) at midnight and he told her he made it home.”

Moss then interviewed James Buller, a friend of Sides.

According to Buller, Sides called Buller about 12:51 a.m. and asked him to come out to his house and watch TV. When Buller arrived, Thigpen, Boyer and Tim Smith, known as “Tattoo Tim” were at the house.

Sides, Thigpen, Boyer and Smith went out to the swimming pool for a few minutes and returned, at which time Sides said he was going to bed, Buller said in an affidavit.

About 7 a.m., Buller was awakened by Thigpen and told something was wrong with Sides, the affidavit said.

Buller checked Sides and couldn’t find a pulse. He said that Thigpen, Boyer and Smith began acting crazy and that Boyer said he was going to jail for giving Sides the pills, according to the affidavit. Buller called 911.

Later, during an interview with law enforcement officials, Thigpen said Boyer sold methadone pills and that he was getting them from a person called “Soccer Mom.”

“Soccer Mom” was later identified as Melissa Gilbert, a former nurse, who said she had a prescription for Methadone, as well as Lortab from Dr. Thomas Dixon.

Dixon, she said, prescribed 150 Methadone tablets and 180 Lortab tablets. She said she took the medication for a back injury she received in a car accident.

In the meantime, Thigpen told authorities that he had seen Boyer give Sides eight Methadone tablets that he had purchased from Gilbert.

“Justin gave two to Shane and crushed the other six and snorted them,” Thigpen said in the affidavit.

Detective Larry Sharp of the Weatherford Police Department had on videotape scenes of Sides receiving something from Boyer while he was at work at the Fast Lane on Airport Road.

The videotape was provided by Karen Elkin, manager of the Fast Lane.