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Press Release

Pittsburgh-area Drug Dealer Gets 8 Years for Selling Fatal Dose of Fentanyl

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH - A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in federal court to 96 months in prison on his guilty plea to violating federal drug laws, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

United States District Court Judge Joy Flowers Conti imposed the sentence yesterday on Matthew David Adams, age 29.

In connection with the guilty plea, the court was advised that Adams was a drug dealer who sold both heroin and fentanyl. Adams sold 15 stamp bags marked "OMG" and two of those bags were given to the victim who died as a result of using the fentanyl in them. After law enforcement officers identified Adams as the dealer of the deadly drugs, he was arrested and found in possession of stamp bags containing fentanyl and others containing heroin. In Court, Adams admitted that the fentanyl he sold caused the April 19, 2016 death of Jesse James King in Houston Borough, Washington County.

Judge Conti told Adams that he would have to live with the fact that he caused the death of another person "for the rest of [his] life" and ordered that he be supervised by federal Probation Officers for five years after his release from the 8-year term of imprisonment. Judge Conti imposed strict conditions on Adams’ supervision which included requirements that he work at least 30 hours per week, not associate with felons, notify his Probation Officer if he is stopped or questioned by police, and pay his debt to society. The defendant personally apologized for becoming involved in the incident that brought him to federal court.

Assistant United States Attorney Ross E. Lenhardt, a federal prosecutor in the Violent Crime section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Brady commended the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Washington County Drug Task Force, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Washington County District Attorney’s Office, and numerous local police departments including the Canonsburg Police Department, the Stowe Township Police Department, the Donora Police Department, the Monessen Police Department, and the Charleroi Police Department, as well as the Washington County Coroner’s Office and the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office, for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Adams.

Updated March 2, 2018

Topics
Drug Trafficking
Opioids