Federal judges sentence two with Washington County drug connections
Federal judges sentenced a Pittsburgh man and a Greensburg teenager – who both reportedly admitted in court they’d sold drugs that killed two Washington County men – to prison in separate cases stemming from their involvement in dealing opiates.
U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti sentenced Matthew D. Adams, 29, of Pittsburgh, to eight years in prison Wednesday during a proceeding in Pittsburgh.
Adams pleaded guilty in September to a charge he conspired with others to deal heroin and fentanyl from January to April 2016.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement Adams admitted in court he sold fentanyl that caused the death of Jesse James King, who was 49 when he overdosed April 19, 2016, in Houston.
Conti reportedly told Adams he’d have to live with having killed another person “for the rest of (his) life,” and ordered him to serve five years of probation following his term in prison.
Also on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon imposed a five-year prison sentence on 19-year-old Tristin Bradley Axton, formerly of Charleroi, who pleaded guilty in November to a charge of dealing heroin and fentanyl.
In court, Axton took responsibility for causing the death of Anthony Terrant, 35, of Charleroi, who died August 17, 2015, a day after Axton sold him opiates.
Bissoon also sentenced Axton to three years of probation and to pay $8,120 for Terrant’s funeral expenses.
Axton reportedly became emotional during sentencing and apologized for his involvement with drug trafficking.
Authorities charged Axton in September 2016 during a federal initiative aimed at curbing the large number of overdoses in the area involving high-purity heroin and the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Investigators reportedly got a warrant allowing them to stop and search Axton, whom they found while he was reportedly selling a brick – 50 stamp bags – of heroin to someone, according to court papers.
He reportedly fled on foot, but investigators reportedly apprehended him and seized evidence, including 70 stamp bags of heroin from Axton and his customer.