In a drug-sick haze last year, 22-year-old Jason H. Gorge killed and robbed his grandfather in Dundalk, ingested more heroin and drove in the dead man's van to Pennsylvania, where he slit his throat in a suicide attempt. Those are the facts everyone acknowledges.

What jurors in Gorge's murder trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court must determine is whether the killing of 80-year- old Harry R. Gorge was "willful, deliberate and premeditated" - murder in the first degree.

In her opening statement yesterday, public defender Gayle Robinson assured the jury that it was not.

"You will hear more than you want to about a young life destroyed by drugs, the destruction of a family," she told jurors.

She described the dope-ravaged lives of Gorge and his girlfriend during the weeks before the killing, and said the two wanted to kill themselves to escape their addictions. She also told how a desperate request for money quickly turned to a killing without premeditation.

Assistant State's Attorney Dilip Paliath said in his opening that Gorge beat his grandfather and then stuffed a handkerchief and rag down his throat - actions that indicate he was consciously trying to kill.

First-degree murder carries a potential sentence of life without parole. Prosecutors could have sought the death penalty in this case, but said they did not because of the wishes of the Gorge family.

Gorge was arrested in Pennsylvania on Oct. 30 last year. He and his girlfriend, Dorothy Brooks, who testified yesterday, had spent days trying to overdose on drugs before the killing, according to court papers.

After the killing, they bought more drugs and drove to Pennsylvania in the van Gorge took from his grandfather. When they again failed to overdose, Gorge told Brooks that he had killed his grandfather, she testified.

They argued when she told him he needed to tell police, she said. She left their hotel room, and although he slashed the van's wheels, she managed to drive across the parking lot and ask bystanders to call the police.

When officers arrived, Gorge slit his throat and stabbed himself 17 times in the stomach, Robinson said. While he was in the hospital, he told detectives about the crime, she said.