Wife awaits trial in husband’s overdose death

WEST CHESTER » A West Bradford woman accused of bringing her husband heroin that led to an overdose from which she allegedly tried to revive him by rubbing cocaine on his gums, recording his dying moments on her cellphone, remains free on bail while her case makes its way through the Chester County court system.

On Monday, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Sommer granted a continuance request from the attorney for Diane Lynn Rohrman, Eric Strand of West Chester, so that he could continue to prepare for a possible trial and seek discovery from the prosecution, according to court documents.

Rohrman, a 57-year-old product liability attorney, is charged with felony drug delivery resulting in death, possession of a controlled substance, recklessly endangering another person, and possession o drug paraphernalia, stemming from the death of her husband, 41-year-old Emeka “Ziggy” Nwadiora Jr. at the home they shared off Marshall ton T horn dale Road.

She has pleaded not guilty in the case.

State police said they were called to the home around 6:45 p.m. on Aug. 17, by Rohrman, who said she had found her husband dead in their living room of an apparent drug overdose. According to the arrest affidavit,

Rohrman’s account of how her husband — who was on house arrest for a parole violation at the time of his death — could have gotten ahold of the heroin that killed him changed over time as she spoke with the investigating officer, state Trooper Aaron Botts.

An addict, Nwadiora had passed a drug screen on Aug. 15

at a meeting with his parole officer, Rohrman told the trooper.

Initially, she said that Nwadiora had not left the house for two days because of his house arrest, but that he may have arranged to have the heroin he took delivered to him surreptitiously by her through a friend. Rohrman said Nwadiora had asked her to meet someone in Delaware County, where the couple had previously lived, who wanted to give him a pair of shoes to add to his sneaker collection.

She said she picked the shoe box up from the unnamed friend, and that when returning home with it her husband “became distant” and went to a separate portion of the house. Rohrman told Botts that the shoes might have had the heroin inside them without her knowing.

But when Botts asked to see the shoes Rohrman said she had brought home with her, she was unable to identify the pair or the empty box. As the trooper went with Rohrman through the home looking for the shoe box, he wrote, he noticed several wax bags that are typical packaging for heroin — many still full.

At some point, Rohrman

showed Botts a video of Nwadiora in the throes of his overdose that she said she had recorded so she could show him how he acted towards her when he was high on heroin. In it, the trooper saw Nwadiora slide off the couch and slump to the floor after telling Rohrman he had used seven or eight bags of heroin.

The video showed Rohrman leaving the room, returning with cocaine, which she applied to his mouth in order to revive him. She said Nwadiora had told her to do so in the past, and that she “had also seen it done on television.”

But later, after Botts arranged for her to be interviewed in a patrol car outside

her home, Rohrman allegedly acknowledged that she had knowingly delivered the heroin to Nwadiora after he threatened to assault her if she did not. She said she drove to Delaware County where she purchased $400 worth of heroin and cocaine, and which she then brought home.

According to her story, Nwadiora used some of the heroin, then fell asleep and became unresponsive.

When he eventually stopped breathing, she said, she called 9-1-1 and began CPR until emergency medical personnel arrived.

Assistant District Attorney Michelle Barrone of the D.A.’s Drug Unit is prosecuting the case.