Trial begins for woman in overdose death case
NORRISTOWN >> A Willow Grove man died after injecting what he believed was heroin, but in reality was the more powerful drug fentanyl that a Hatboro woman sold to him, a prosecutor argued to a jury.
“She gave a controlled substance to somebody else and a person died as a result of that delivery,” Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kathleen McLaughlin argued on Wednesday as Gwendolyn Marie Prebish’s trial got under way in connection with the November 2016 overdose death of Michael Pastorino, 32, of the Willow Grove section of Upper Moreland.
“Michael died almost immediately after injecting the drugs that this defendant gave to him,” McLaughlin added, dramatically pointing at Prebish in the courtroom. “The defendant profited off of Michael’s death. She used Michael for profit.”
But defense lawyer Jonathan J. Sobel argued Prebish is not a drug dealer.
“Is this the face of a drug dealer?” Sobel asked jurors as he motioned toward Prebish seated at the defense table. “She was using drugs. She’s a drug addict. She’s not your corner dealer. She wanted money to support her habit. Does that make her a drug dealer?
“He contacted Gwen and it wasn’t the first time. She didn’t reach out to him,” Sobel added.
Sobel argued Prebish believed she was delivering heroin to Pastorino and did not know it was fentanyl.
Sobel argued tests determined Pastorino also had heroin in his system at the time of his death and Sobel suggested Pastorino had been socializing with friends earlier in the evening and was involved in drug activity at that time.
Sobel suggested there’s insufficient evidence to prove that it was the fentanyl that killed Pastorino.
But prosecutors contend it was the introduction of the fentanyl into Pastorino’s body that ultimately led to his death.
The trial before Judge Steven T. O’Neill is expected to include testimony from prosecution and defense experts who have differing opinions about the circumstances leading to Pastorino’s death. The trial is expected to last about five days.
Prebish, of the unit block of Rorer Avenue, faces charges of drug delivery resulting in death, involuntary manslaughter and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance in connection with Pastorino’s death.
Upper Moreland Detective Sgt. James Kelly testified that when Prebish was arrested on the charges a month after Pastorino’s death she uttered, “(Expletive) hate him. How do you (expletive) OD?”
Prebish, who turns 30 on Friday, remains in the county jail while awaiting the outcome of her trial.
A conviction of drug delivery resulting in death is punishable of up to 40 years in prison, a penalty that is similar to third-degree murder.
An investigation began about 6:45 p.m. Nov. 6, 2016, when Upper Moreland police responded to the 600 block of Fitzwatertown Road for a report of a drug overdose.
Thomas Olszewski, Pastorino’s uncle, testified he found Pastorino in his bedroom.
“He was sitting at his desk, slumped over. He looked grayish and wasn’t moving,” Olszewski, at times wiping tears from his eyes, told jurors. “I saw a needle on the desk in front of him.”
Officers found Pastorino dead, seated in a chair at his desk and clutching a syringe in his right hand, Upper Moreland Detective Francis Joseph Gallagher Jr. testified.
At the scene, investigators recovered two syringes, blue wax bags stamped “Ferrari,” which was consistent with heroin packaging, and Pastorino’s cellphone, according to court documents and testimony.
An autopsy conducted by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office determined the cause of Pastorino’s death was not heroin but was the even deadlier drug fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 40 to 50 times more deadly than streetlevel heroin, prosecutors alleged. The coroner ruled the death accidental as a result of drug intoxication.
Detectives found text messages on Pastorino’s cellphone indicating he contacted Prebish, his alleged drug dealer, at 11:32 p.m. Nov. 5, requesting four bags of heroin, according to court papers. At 1:13 a.m. Nov. 6, Prebish texted Pastorino asking if he had $40, detectives alleged.
When Pastorino indicated he had the money, Prebish texted him that she would be at his residence about 2 a.m. At 2:18 a.m. Nov. 6, Prebish arrived with the drugs and Pastorino was waiting for her outside, according to the complaint.
When detectives developed Prebish as a suspect in the death case, they arranged a controlled drug buy and on Nov. 7, Prebish was arrested by Upper Moreland police after she allegedly sold suspected heroin in blue wax bags stamped “Ferrari” to a confidential informant.
“These were the same markings found on the bags of suspected heroin possessed by Pastorino at the time of his death,” detectives alleged in the arrest affidavit.
At the time of her arrest, Prebish also possessed several prescription pills, detectives alleged.
In an interview following her arrest, Prebish told detectives she met Pastorino in the driveway of his home on Nov. 6 and delivered $40 worth of heroin to him, “the same as she possessed on Nov. 7,” according to the criminal complaint.
When authorities tested the suspected “Ferrari” heroin seized from Prebish on Nov. 7 they determined the substance actually was fentanyl, according to the arrest affidavit.