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A jury was slated this morning and the trial of Michael C. Kistner was under way despite the fact that Kistner didn't show up for court.
Kosciusko Circuit Court Judge Rex Reed opted to move ahead with the trial in which Kistner, 23, of 402 W. Main St., Warsaw, is charged with three counts of dealing in a controlled substance.
Kistner was arrested in April after two girls, then 13, were taken to the hospital in an intoxicated-like state.
The father of one of the teens called police after his daughter returned home from three days as a runaway and was somewhat incoherent, appearing to be intoxicated. She told police she took some kind of white pills and spent some time in the intensive care unit of Kosciusko Community Hospital.
Another girl, who reportedly knew something about the pills the first girl took, was found in a similar condition and also taken to the hospital for treatment.
Police were directed to Kistner by a juvenile male who alleged that Kistner offered to sell him some of the pills.
Police later learned that the pills were phenobarbital and that each of the teen-age girls took about seven of the pills. The pills are used to control seizures and are, otherwise, a "downer," according to police.
The trial is scheduled for two days in Kosciusko Circuit Court and, if convicted, Kistner faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the three Class B felony charges.
