Bethlehem man charged with providing drugs in woman’s fatal overdose

A Bethlehem man was charged Thursday with providing the drugs that led to a woman’s fatal overdose two years ago, authorities said.

Eugene Lewis, 49, is charged with drug delivery resulting in death, a first-degree felony, according to a news release from the Lehigh County district attorney’s office.

He is accused of being the source of the drugs for 43-year-old Leslie Sherman, who was found dead Oct. 11, 2021, in her Lower Macungie Township home.

The Lehigh County coroner’s office ruled that Sherman died accidentally from a mixture of diphenhydramine, acetyl fentanyl, fentanyl and loperamide.

State troopers found several glassine bags near Sherman’s body, the release said. They were labeled “BROKE OPPS” and bore a “danger” skull and sketch of Benjamin Franklin’s head, all in red ink.

A confidential informant found Sherman dead and told authorities they were both heroin users. The informant claimed to have bought heroin Oct. 9 from a person in Bethlehem.

The informant gave some of the bags of apparent heroin to Sherman and kept the others for personal use, the release said. The informant claimed to be Sherman’s usual provider and said it was unlikely she had gotten heroin from anyone else.

An investigation determined Lewis sold the bags to the informant, and several undercover drug buys were conducted. Drugs bought in those deals had the same stamp as the ones found near Sherman’s body at the time of her death, the release said.

Sherman may have believed she was taking heroin because that drug and fentanyl are packaged the same way.

Louis Tallarico, chief county detective for the district attorney’s Drug Task Force, said the drugs “have started to be used and sold interchangeably on the street. They are packaged the same way and are often sold to users assuming it is heroin, but the users most times are aware that it can be fentanyl.”

Only as a result of chemical testing is the substance able to be identified as fentanyl.

“We are currently seeing more fentanyl than heroin in drug investigations,” he added.