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Warren man indicted in OD deaths of Niles woman, fetus
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
For a fourth time, Trumbull County drug investigators have charged a young man with a major felony after another young person died from a drug overdose blamed on the drugs the dealer sold.
On Tuesday, Anton L. Perry Jr., 22, of Maryland Street Northeast was arraigned on two counts of involuntary manslaughter – one count for a Niles woman, 20, who died from a fentanyl overdose, and one count for the death of her unborn child.
Jamie Deutsch, who was about 61/2 months pregnant, died Oct. 22 from a drug overdose, according to Perry’s indictments.
Perry also is charged with corrupting Deutsch with drugs by selling her fentanyl Oct. 21, and Perry is charged with aggravated trafficking in fentanyl Oct. 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
If convicted of the nine charges, he could get more than 40 years in prison.
The case was investigated by the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcment Task Force, which is under the supervision of the sheriffs of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties. TAG also investigated the last two cases that resulted in convictions.
Perry was indicted secretly and pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, where Judge Andrew Logan set bond at $1 million.
According to Deutsch’s obituary, she died Oct. 22 at her home. She was a lover of equestrian sports, winning numerous grand championships in hunter/jumper competitions.
TAG charged Perry with drug trafficking and drug abuse in Niles Municipal Court Oct. 23. He was released from the county jail Oct. 24 after posting $5,000 bond.
Jeff Orr, TAG commander, said the investigation into Deutsch’s death began with a call from Deutsch’s family, which supplied investigators with Deutsch’s cellphone.
The department has spent the last three months following up on the case, including an undercover operation during which fentanyl was purchased from Perry, Orr said. After that, investigators waited for toxicology and drug-lab results, Orr said.
The case later was bound over to the grand jury, which returned a secret indictment against Perry.
Orr noted that Trumbull County had at least 98 drug-overdose deaths in 2016, a record, according to new statistics from the county coroner’s office, but Deutsch’s death is the only one that has resulted in charges of this type.
If more people would come forward with such information, more such cases could be solved, Orr said.
In 2013, James Patterson, 28, of Youngstown was sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling a fatal dose of heroin to Christine Sheesley of Girard on her 17th birthday in April 2012. Tyler Stevens, 20, of Girard got a five-year-prison term for injecting the heroin into Sheesley. That case was investigated by Girard police.
In April 2016, Maurice Bryant, 28, was sentenced to three years in prison for selling the fatal dose of drugs that killed Megan Fitzgerald, 24, of Champion in April 2015.
Mark Thornsberry, 26, of Niles, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in April 2015 for injecting the fatal dose of drugs that killed Joshua Robbins, 25, of Mineral Ridge, in 2014.
In the three cases before Perry, the accused was convicted of involuntary manslaughter or reckless homicide and other offenses.