TROY — Miami County Sheriff’s Office have charged two drug dealers in the overdose death of a Concord Township man this week.
James Lennon, 33, of Concord Township, died of a fentanyl overdose on Feb. 24, 2017. According to a press release by the Miami County Sheriff’s Office, the case was recently presented to a grand jury, which returned indictments of first degree felony involuntary manslaughter and fifth degree felony aggravated trafficking of narcotics against Derek T. Gardner, 32, of West Milton, and Quincy Mattison, 28, of Dayton.
According to Miami County Sheriff Dave Duchak, detectives were able to identify and collect evidence on two suspects who trafficked the narcotics to Lennon. Detectives also recovered a small amount of fentanyl from the suspects.
It is the first time in the sheriff’s office history to charge a drug dealers with involuntary manslaughter related to the heroin and opiate epidemic. In recent years, Piqua Police Department charged two people in similar cases and both were successfully prosecuted by the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office.
Duchak said these types of cases are difficult to investigate due to the lack of cooperation as well as the lack of physical evidence. Duchak said the detective division used special investigative techniques to gather pertinent evidence to make the arrest of Gardner on Sept. 27. Mattison was arrested on Wednesday when he appeared for a felony parole visit in Montgomery County. Both are awaiting arraignment as of press time.
“When we can get the evidence, we’ll continue to pursue charges,” Duchak said. “These types of cases are not easy to bring to resolution and I would be remiss not to note the hard work and due diligence of our detective section and the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office.”
Duchak said drug cases such as Lennon’s death are difficult due to detectives having to “work backwards” with little leads and bulk of the drug buys occurring in Dayton. Duchak said many drug users don’t know their dealers names when they buy off the streets.
Deputies responded to Lennon’s residence on North County Road 25A along with medics in February on the report of a subject not breathing and possible overdose. Lennon was found unresponsive and was pronounced deceased. The cause of death was later ruled as an overdose due to fentanyl.
An adult female at the scene was transported by medics to Upper Valley Medical Center also suffering from an overdose. The female did survive.
