Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani yesterday denied a defense motion to dismiss the charges against 22-year-old Dylan Blair of Saltsburg, who is accused of providing the drugs that led to the fatal overdose of a Derry woman on Christmas Eve in 2016.
Blair is charged with four felony offenses: drug delivery resulting in death, and three counts of delivery of a controlled substance. He’s accused of selling a deadly mix of heroin laced with fentanyl to 38-year-old Michelle Spillar, whose body was found in her home. Next to it were two full stamp bags and an empty one marked “Head Games”, which police connected to Blair through another person who said he’d bought the same type of stamp bag from Blair and also said he was there when Blair sold the drugs to Spillar.
Blair was captured at the Days Inn along Route 22 outside of Blairsville in May of 2017, and police found another overdose victim in the room with him. That man, Edward Russian of Saltsburg, survived and was processed through the Indiana County Court, where he pleaded guilty to a possession charge and was sentenced to a year of probation.
In his ruling, Judge Feliciani said prosecutors have enough evidence for the case to move forward. 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. Each of the delivery of a controlled substance charges carries with it a sentence of anywhere from two years to seven years, depending on the amount of drugs involved.
