One night after responding to a reported drug overdose in a notorious drug house on Oak Street, Mt. Pleasant city officers responded to a second, this one resulting in a man’s death.
Justin Wendel Gay, 41, was pronounced dead at approximately 3:33 a.m. Saturday of an apparent heroin overdose, approximately 24 hours after police responded to a different reported heroin overdose at the address. That overdose was originally reported to have taken place Saturday morning. It took place at approximately 5:31 a.m. Friday morning.
Officers found Gay sitting upright in a living room chair when they arrived. He was non-responsive and didn’t appear breathing. They began CPR, while a third officer on scene gave him a dose of Narcan.
MMR responders arrived and Gay was pronounced dead.
Present at the house was the man who overdosed Friday morning and John Roger Smith, the house’s tenant.
Smith was freed recently from the Isabella County Jail following his Sept. 9 arrest for operating a drug house in a citywide sting that resulted in charges brought against more than a dozen people. That includes a woman who is accused of selling crystal meth to a confidential informant at the Oak Street residence.
He was arraigned on Oct. 6 on two counts of delivery/manufacture of meth and operating a drug house. According to court records, no hearings were scheduled.
The residence was a well-known drug house in the area, generating considerable bicycle and foot traffic on Oak Street. Cars stopped in front of the house or were parked in the Oak Tree Village parking lot, with drivers visiting the house for short periods of time.
Arguments involving profanities on the lawn were common as were vague threats of violence. Some involved Smith.
The side door to the house, used most frequently to access it, was boarded up sometime between Monday and Wednesday morning. The house is owned by Norm Curtiss, according to city records.
Smith’s current whereabouts are unknown, and he is not currently listed as at the Isabella County Jail.
