SANTA CRUZ >> Alix Tichelman pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony involuntary manslaughter and other charges in the death of 51-year-old Google executive Forrest Hayes on his yacht in the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor.

Hayes was found dead after Tichelman, a 27-year-old call girl he hired, injected him with a lethal dose of heroin in November 2013, authorities said. Tuesday, prosecutors refined a charge of manslaughter to involuntary manslaughter. A felony charge of drug possession also was reduced to a misdemeanor because of a Jan. 1 change in state law that reduced penalties for drug crimes.

Hearing those refined charges, Tichelman pleaded guilty to all of her charges without a plea deal from prosecutors. The final charges also included felony administration of drugs, misdemeanor destroying or concealing evidence and misdemeanor engaging in prostitution, according to court documents.

“It’s a sad and tragic case,” prosecutor Rafael Vazquez said outside court.

“The (Hayes) family has dealt with a great deal of stress and scrutiny and a great deal of scorn.”

Vazquez said Hayes’ family, which includes two elementary school children, has moved away from Santa Cruz County after all the national media attention.

Santa Cruz County Superior Judge Timothy Volkmann sentenced Tichelman to six years of incarceration.

She is expected to serve three years of that, Volkmann said, in part because of the 321 days she served in Santa Cruz County Jail. The credit for that time served was doubled as part of the sentencing equation.

Tichelman is expected to serve the whole term in County Jail. Vazquez said in court that he respectfully disagreed with Volkmann’s ruling.

No trial

Jerry Christensen, one of Tichelman’s public defenders, said in court that Tichelman did not want to stand trial because she did not want to go through it or put her family through it. Tichelman’s father, Synapsense Corp. CEO Bart Tichelman, was in the court gallery Tuesday with his wife, Leslieann Tichelman.

Alix Tichelman appeared calm while cuffed and shackled in red jail clothes in court. She mouthed “Hi” to her parents as she sat down.

During sentencing, Christensen said, “We want to convey a sincere apology to the Hayes family.

“This was an accident and a panic and she is so, so sorry.”

The trouble started Nov. 22, 2013, on Hayes’ 46-foot motor yacht, “Escape,” docked in the Santa Cruz harbor. Hayes was a father of five and met Tichelman on the dating website SeekingArrangement.com, police said. The website says it helps “sugar daddies” meet “sugar babies.”

Hayes and Tichelman had met once before, but not on the yacht, authorities said.

In the yacht’s cabin that night, Tichelman injected herself with heroin, prosecutors said. Hayes used the light from his iPhone to find a vein in his arm, and Tichelman consensually injected Hayes with the same heroin in a separate syringe, prosecutors said. Hayes nodded off.

Authorities said it was not clear if Hayes had used heroin before. The scene was caught on a video surveillance camera in the boat’s cabin, which did not include audio.

Crucial video

Tichelman did not call 911 to try to save Hayes, though police and prosecutors differ on details of how she acted after his injection.

Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark has said Tichelman was “glacially cold” in the minutes that followed. Clark said she packed her drugs and syringes in her purse, cleaned off a table and drew a window blind. When she stepped over Hayes to drink from a glass of wine, she left behind a fingerprint on the glass, which helped investigators to identify her, Clark said after her July 2014 arrest.

Tichelman left, and the yacht’s captain found Hayes dead the next morning.

Vazquez, who also reviewed the surveillance video, described a slightly different version outside court Tuesday. Vazquez said Hayes was sitting on the floor of the boat’s cabin when he looked like he was falling asleep.

“She starts shaking him, trying to wake him up,” Vazquez said. Hayes appears in distress and holds Tichelman’s arm. She starts to panic, “smacking him in the chest and face,” said Vazquez.

She tries to shake him, then pulls back and appears to be crying. She then tries to pick up Hayes, but he’s too heavy, so she puts him down. Tichelman then frantically cleans up the boat cabin, fluffing a pillow, wiping down surfaces and “shotgunning” a glass of wine, Vazquez said.

She stepped over him because he was on the floor of a narrow part of the cabin, and she had to climb over him to exit the boat, prosecutors said.

“This guy (Hayes) needs help, and at that point she should have tried to get medical help,” said Vazquez.

During the Santa Cruz police investigation, detectives asked her why she didn’t call 911. She told them she didn’t want Hayes’ wife to find out about their relationship.

It’s not clear if Tichelman, a Georgia native, knew about a 2013 California Good Samaritan law that shields drug users from minor drug possession charges if the person is reporting a drug overdose. A similar law started in Georgia in April 2014 and is in at least 23 other states.

Alix Tichelman was with her 53-year-old live-in boyfriend, Dean Riopelle, in September 2014 when he also died of a heroin overdose.

Georgia case

In that case, Tichelman stepped out of a shower and found Riopelle in medical distress, police in Milton, Georgia, said. She called 911 and said, “I think my boyfriend overdosed or something, he, like, he won’t respond,” according to an audio recording released by Milton police in 2014.

When the dispatcher asked why she thought it was a overdose, Tichelman said, “There was nothing else it could be.” When asked if it was accidental or intentional, she said, “Accidental, definitely accidental.”

It was ruled an accidental death and Tichelman was not charged in the case. When Milton police received details of the Santa Cruz case, they reopened their investigation. Police and prosecutors in Georgia have not said whether she will be charged in connection with Riopelle’s death.

Vazquez, the Santa Cruz County prosecutor, said outside court Tuesday that Hayes’ family did not want the Santa Cruz case prosecuted against Tichelman. He said he had an ethical obligation to pursue it.

Hayes’ family also told him they did not want a preliminary hearing in which the surveillance video would be shown. There is no sex on the tape, police and prosecutors said.

Vazquez said he felt for Hayes’ wife of 17 years, Denise Hayes, and their children.

“They’re ultimately paying the price for the bad decisions that their father made,” he said. “They don’t deserve to be punished for his terrible decisions.”