At a preliminary hearing in Derry yesterday, District Judge Mark Bilik ordered 21-year-old Dylan Blair of Saltsburg to stand trial in Westmoreland County for drug delivery resulting in death and three counts of delivery of a controlled substance. Blair is accused of providing the fatal dose of heroin, laced with fentanyl, that killed 38-year-old Michelle Spillar at a home in Derry on December 26th.
Among those testifying yesterday was Westmoreland County Detective Randy Gardner, who told the judge that next to Spillar’s body police found two full stamp bags and an empty one marked “Head Games”, which they connected to Blair through another person who said he’d bought heroin marked “Head Games” from Blair. Tyler Klapchar of Derry also testified that he was there when Blair sold the drugs to Spillar on Christmas day. Also, an inmate from the Indiana County Jail, 28-year-old Ayla Binion of Saltsburg, told the judge she was there when Blair took a phone call from Detective Gardner informing him that he would be charged in Spillar’s death, and that Blair hung up and said he hoped he didn’t get a murder charge.
Blair was captured at the Days Inn along Route 22 outside of Blairsville on May 23rd, and police found an overdose victim in the room with him. He and that man, 41-year-old Edward Russian of Saltsburg, are facing possession charges in Indiana County for that case. Blair is being held at the Westmoreland County Prison on $700,000 bond. A charge of Drug Delivery resulting in death carries with it the equivalent sentence for third degree murder: a maximum of 20 to 40 years in prison.
