COURTS

Stroudsburg residents found guilty for drug delivery resulting in death

Brian Myszkowski
Pocono Record

A man and woman from Stroudsburg have been found guilty of distributing controlled substances resulting in death, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.

According to a release from the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Jeremy Edward Johnson, 31, and Susan Melissa Nickas, 47, both of Stroudsburg, were found guilty of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl within the Middle District of Pennsylvania, resulting in the death of a person.

The decision came down after an eight-day trial before U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion.

United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam noted that jurors deliberated for approximately two hours before rendering guilty verdicts against Johnson and Nickas for the Dec. 11, 2020 death of a 32-year-old Monroe County man. Johnson and Nickas were also found guilty of aiding and abetting each other in a Dec. 10, 2020 distribution of heroin and fentanyl resulting in that death.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office presented testimony from expert witnesses, including forensic toxicologist Dr. Michael Coyer, who opined that the victim's death resulted stemmed the use of heroin and fentanyl, and a Pennsylvania State Police forensic chemist who analyzed drugs found at the scene of the death.

Additional testimony was provided by officers and detectives from the Monroe County District Attorney's Office, the PSP, the Pocono Township Police Department, the FBI's Scranton office, and an FBI special agent from the Pittsburgh office.

The charges come from a joint investigation involving the FBI in Scranton, the PSP, and the Monroe County District Attorney's Office.

Assistant United States Attorneys Michelle Olshefski and Sean Camoni prosecuted the case.

Detective Kim Lippincott noted that pursuing a case of drug delivery resulting in death is a complex and difficult matter, but one which the District Attorney's office — which is currently working on several such cases — takes very seriously, especially in the current climate of the opioid epidemic.

"Generally, these cases are very hard to prove, but we're doing everything that we can to gather as much information after someone passes from an overdose to lead to a successful prosecution if we can," Lippincott said. "That's ultimately our goal, to hold somebody accountable. The victim paid the ultimate price of drug addiction; they are dead, so we really work hard for their families and the people that are left behind."

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From 2015 to 2019, Monroe County saw 26 cases of drug delivery resulting in death, accounting for 2.99% of the state's total of 871 deaths. While counties like York and Lancaster account for over 11% of drug delivery resulting in death charges each for the commonwealth overall, Monroe comes close to the ten counties with the highest incident rates.

The maximum penalty allowed under law for the aforementioned charges is life in prison, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine.

The Department of Justice notes that the judge issuing the sentences must consider and weigh a number of factors including the nature and seriousness of the offense, the history and characteristics of the defendant, and the need to punish the defendant, protect the public and provide for the defendant’s educational, vocational and medical needs.

Due to these factors, the maximum penalty allowed is not necessarily an accurate indicator of the defendants' potential sentences.

The case was brought as part of a district-wide initiative to combat the nationwide heroin and fentanyl epidemic. Led by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Heroin Initiative targets heroin traffickers operating in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is part of a coordinated effort between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who commit heroin related offenses.

In addition, the case was part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, a joint federal, state, and local operation that is described as "the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts."

PSN utilizes numerous stakeholders to identify the most pressing violent crime issues in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses efforts on the most violent offenders, partnering with locally-based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.