Brothers get 20 years for fatal heroin OD

Two Duquesne brothers who admitted giving a woman heroin that caused her fatal overdose were each sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison on federal drug charges.

The case against Charles Jones, 24, and Ondre Jones, 23, was the first ever prosecuted in the federal court for Western Pennsylvania for a drug-related death.

The brothers each pleaded guilty in July to two counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute.

The statutory minimum sentence for the offense is 20 years.

Charles Jones told U.S. District Judge Robert Cindrich yesterday that he is working to rehabilitate himself. Charles Jones has been serving as a tutor at Allegheny County Jail, where he has been held pending sentencing, and recently became engaged.

"His heart and spirit has changed," his mother, Saadia Davison, said in court.

Charles Jones will receive credit for the two years he has served on similar drug charges.

"You understand a sentence is a sentence," said Cindrich. "But you are to be commended for the way you've conducted yourself."

Both brothers also were sentenced to five years of supervised release and were ordered to jointly pay restitution of $1,734 to the victim's parents.

On Feb. 21, 2000, the brothers supplied Carla Burchell, 28, of McKeesport, with heroin in exchange for sex, according to an affidavit.

Burchell took the drug in a McKeesport apartment of the Joneses' father. When the brothers and an unnamed associate found her body later the next day, they hid it in the kitchen closet.

Later that day, the Joneses took her body to their mother's home in Duquesne. They wrapped the corpse in blankets and garbage bags and buried it in a shallow grave in the yard.

After a missing person report was filed, Allegheny County homicide detectives and agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration obtained a search warrant for the Duquesne residence and found Burchell's body.

Burchell's father, Melvin Burchell, of McKeesport, declined comment yesterday.