[B]URLINGTON — A police investigation that began with a woman’s overdose death in a Pearl Street apartment last month led to a recent raid in the same same building and the arrest of three men on drug charges.
A 43-year-old woman was found dead from an overdose at 416 Pearl St. on Aug. 18, according to police, who said she had cocaine, heroin and fentanyl in her system.
The Burlington Police Department issued a statement saying it “pursues fatal overdoses as if they are crimes, seeking to hold the people who distributed the drugs responsible for causing a death.”
No one has yet been charged with in the woman’s death, and Burlington police referred further questions to the U.S. Attorney’s office. That office would not say whether it’s investigating further charges in this case.
It can be difficult to make a case for homicide or even manslaughter against drug dealers for the overdose deaths of their customers, but aggressive prosecutors are increasingly seeking such charges.
The pitfalls of such investigations were on display when the state’s attorney chose not to bring such charges against a dealer implicated in the 2015 overdose deaths of two brothers in Burlington.
In the new case, police went to Christopher Handy’s apartment in the same building where they alleged heroin and cocaine were being sold. Documents filed in federal court say police worked with an informant to purchase drugs at the apartment. The following day, Sept. 14, officers raided Handy’s apartment, arresting him and three other men: Aavi Nommick, Terrance Tinsley and Rashad Nashid.
“Two other individuals associated with the incident who were determined to be low-level participants and who were addicted to heroin were referred to treatment rather than subject to prosecution,” police said in their news release.
Officers recovered 50 grams of crack cocaine, 25 grams of powder cocaine, five grams of heroin, $5,000 cash and a loaded .357 revolver from the apartment.
Handy and Nashid were arraigned on drug charges in Chittenden County Superior Court and released on conditions. Nommick was cited for misdemeanor cocaine possession and is expected to appear in court at a later date.
Tinsley is being charged in U.S. District Court on the federal charge of possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to distribute. The complaint alleges that during the raid, police discovered the crack cocaine, heroin and a pistol in a bedroom Tinsley was sharing with a woman who is not identified.
Police said they found $200 in Tinsley’s room in traceable bills that had been used by their informant to buy drugs at the apartment.
Notably, the complaint states that Burlington police officers field tested the heroin, something that many law enforcement officers will no longer do, because of the risk presented by fentanyl.
Even miniscule amounts of the powerful synthetic opioid can cause people to overdose when absorbed through the skin, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In a recent major heroin bust in Winooski, a DEA agent wrote in his affidavit that agents with the Vermont Drug Task Force generally don’t field test heroin anymore.
The U.S. Attorney for Vermont filed a motion to have Tinsley held pending trial, arguing that he was a flight risk and a danger to the community. Their motion notes that Tinsley is from New York City, and has two prior convictions for drug dealing.
The 10-year mandatory minimum he’s facing if convicted of the drug charge, plus a five-year mandatory minimum for being a felon in possession of a firearm, which prosecutors could decide to bring, give Tinsley substantial motivation to flee, the U.S. Attorney writes in its motion for detention.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions granted that motion. Tinsley is due to appear in court for an arraignment on Sept. 29.
