Defendant in fatal overdose case in Derry Twp. testifies

Jesse Hudspath shared 50 stamp bags of heroin he bought Nov. 4 with two friends.

Malachai E. Mundorff, 21, of Derry Township got 25 bags.

Kenneth Wayne Blystone — a 53-year-old Hempfield man, got two bags of the fentanyl-laced drug.

“He offered to drive me down there in exchange for heroin,” Hudspath, 25, testified Friday.

Hours later, both were dead from a drug overdose.

Hudspath of Unity testified during a preliminary hearing that he purchased the $300 brick of heroin in Wilkinsburg from Theodore Brown IV, 23, who was his regular supplier for months. District Judge Mark Mansour ordered Brown to stand trial on charges of drug delivery resulting in death related to the overdoses.

Hudspath waived his right to a hearing Friday on the same charges and testified against Brown. He does not have a deal with prosecutors. Assistant District Attorney James Lazar said Hudspath — he said he is recovering from a heroin addiction — likely will be sentenced to prison for his alleged role in the deaths, according to testimony.

Investigators believe Brown sold the “Good Work” stamp bags that were connected to the deaths.

State police crime laboratory analysis of the recovered heroin showed that it contained high levels of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that looks the same as heroin but is much more potent.

Mundorff was found unconscious in the bathroom of his Derry Township home and was pronounced dead at 3:35 a.m. Nov. 5 at Excela Health Latrobe Hospital, according to police. Blystone was found dead by his roommate the same day at Hempfield Towers.

Hudspath testified that Blystone's roommate called him at 4 a.m. and said the victim was unresponsive.

“I told him to hang up the phone and call 911,” Hudspath testified, adding that he saw an ambulance come to the apartment building, where he also lived. “I went to sleep a little bit after that and thought he was going to be fine.”

Defense attorney Milton Raiford said there is plenty of blame to go around for the ongoing opioid epidemic that killed 13 people a day in Pennsylvania last year. The charges against Brown are “a stretch,” and it's unfair that Hudspath's family had the ability to post $500,000 bail when Brown cannot make the same bond, he argued.

“How is it that (Hudspath) took the same dope and he's here to testify?” Raiford argued. “It's sad, but don't pin the tail on Mr. Brown; you could pin the tail on a whole lot of people.”

“The opiate crisis, we're over-reacting here by charging this crime,” he argued. “Let's pin it on the poor little black kid from Wilkinsburg.”

Mansour rejected Raiford's request for a bond reduction.

Both suspects are set for formal arraignment in October.

Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-837-5374, rsignorini@tribweb.com or via Twitter @byrenatta.