A Hatboro woman who allegedly delivered the drugs that killed a man in his Upper Moreland home has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, the Montgomery County District Attorney said Friday.
Michael Pastorino, 32, of Willow Grove, died Nov. 6, after using drugs he believed to be heroin, the district attorney's office said. The drugs, however, turned out to be a much more potent opioid called fentanyl, according to the DA.
The doses were allegedly provided by Gwendolyn Marie Prebish, 27, according to text messages discovered after Pastorino's death, the DA said.
"The investigation ... revealed that the night before Mr. Pastorino was found dead in his bedroom, he had sent and received drug-related text messages with his heroin supplier," the district attorney's office said in a statement.
The heroin was actually fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 40 to 50 times stronger than street-level heroin, according to the DA.
District Attorney Kevin Steele said Prebish is being charged with drug delivery resulting in death, in addition to the involuntary manslaughter charge.
"You give a drug to someone and they die as a result of the drug, you are on the hook," Steele said in the statement. "Drug dealers need to know that they are killing people, and they will be held criminally responsible."
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Prebish was arraigned on $1 million bail and sent to Montgomery County Correctional Facility. A preliminary hearing will be Dec. 21.
