Woman who worked as sex worker sentenced in fatal overdose on Strip

A judge ordered a three- to eight-year prison sentence Wednesday for a Las Vegas woman who worked as a sex worker and provided drugs to a man before he fatally overdosed in a Strip hotel room.

Heidi Warner, 25, pleaded guilty in June to voluntary manslaughter, admitting that she was responsible for the death of a Utah man named Seneca Higley in February 2024.

In exchange for her plea, prosecutors agreed to make no recommendation at sentencing. Warner previously faced second-degree murder and controlled substance charges.

Police indicated that she sold Higley counterfeit pills later determined to be fentanyl.

She appeared at the sentencing hearing out of custody, but was led from the courtroom in handcuffs after District Judge Michelle Leavitt sentenced her.

Warner delivered a halting, emotional statement in court.

She said she met Higley about a year before what she referred to as “the incident.” He was proud of his daughter and had a warm heart, she said.

Warner said she has prayed for Higley’s daughter, undergone therapy and enrolled in the College of Southern Nevada to earn a business degree.

“I know that this incident is not a situation that you can take back,” she said.

Higley was found dead inside his room at Caesars Palace after his former mother-in-law called police after she had lost contact with him.

His mother-in-law said he was sober but had struggled with substance abuse in the past and had been widowed a few months prior, according to police.

Defense attorney Charles Goodwin argued that while Warner took responsibility for passing a drug, she should receive probation because of mitigating circumstances and her work to rehabilitate herself.

She fell into sex work after her father died, he said, but “she was not a drug dealer. There is no evidence that she engaged in large distribution.”

Higley asked Warner to procure drugs, according to Goodwin. She said she could not obtain what he wanted, but had Percocet, the attorney told the judge.

It was not clear that the pills contained fentanyl, he said. Warner acted as a go-between and out of ignorance, he argued.

She now works at a Chick-fil-A and also does makeup as a side job.

“She has shown that if she is out, she will be a productive member of society,” Goodwin said.