AG files charges in Allegheny County fentanyl death
The Crafton Heights man who sold a lethal dose of opioids to an Oakdale father of three has been charged for the man's death, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office announced Thursday.
Shaunteze Tyrell Turner, 27, is charged with drug delivery resulting in death, which carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.
North Fayette police and AG's investigators used cellphone records to link Turner to 52-year-old Daniel Scott, who was found dead of an overdose in his North Fayette home last Sept. 14. An autopsy showed that Scott was killed by a deadly mix of heroin and fentanyl.
Turner sold the drugs under the names "blue magic" and "Nyquil."
"Selling drugs mixed with fentanyl is like playing Russian roulette," Shapiro said at a news conference at the North Fayette police station. "You never know when there will be a bullet in the chamber and when a life will be taken."
Turner's case is the seventh one in which the attorney general's office has filed such charges since Shapiro took office in January.
"This tough new charge is one key piece in the all-out fight to take down the dealers and battle the heroin and opioid crisis raging across this commonwealth," Shapiro said.
It is the first case Shapiro's office has brought in Allegheny County, though District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has filed drug delivery resulting in death charges against a half-dozen defendants in the county.
District attorney spokesman Mike Manko said five of those defendants are working their way through the court system. The sixth, Christopher Bouris, pleaded guilty in April to one count of drug delivery and one count of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to up to two years in jail followed by five years of probation.
North Fayette police Chief Mark O'Donnell said he is happy to have helped bring closure to Scott's family.
Shapiro said Turner was arrested Thursday morning. He remains in the Allegheny County Jail on $100,000 bail.
Three others are charged with delivery of a controlled substance in connection with the case: Richard Otto, 56, of Coraopolis; and Kirk Garret, 47, and Tracy Skipper, 49, both of Oakdale.
Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer.
