Man Accused Of Selling Drugs To Concord Man Who Fatally Overdosed

CONCORD, NH — A former resident of Concord was arrested on a felony drug sale death resulting charge last month, accused of selling fentanyl to a Concord man, hours before he was found dead of an overdose.

Around 4 a.m. on Aug. 1, 2020, police and fire and rescue teams were sent to a house on Concord Street for a report of a man who was not conscious or breathing. The man, Troy Silva, 53, who was active in the city's recovery community, was pronounced dead on the kitchen floor.

Officers spoke with the woman who found Silva and accessed his cellphone. Police asked about a text message on the cellphone around 9 p.m. to a number with no name and the woman said, from her past experience with Silva, "any drug contacts in his phone were just numbers," according to an affidavit. The police investigation found the woman was honest about where she had been hours before Silva's death — due to surveillance footage at businesses around the city.

About a month later, police learned Silva died due to combined toxicity of fentanyl and cocaine, according to an autopsy by the chief medical examiner.

Police turned to the cellphone and during the course of the investigation, found the number without a name was owned by Matthew Colby, 34, of Pleasant Street in Concord, according to an affidavit. During the text messaging, Silva asked, "You got anything," to which Colby replied, "Yes" and "Come on over," the report said.

Five minutes later, Silva, while driving an SUV, was at Colby's house, according to cellphone tracking. That tracking was corroborated by a video surveillance system on Myrtle Street, that caught Silva leaving his home, and cameras at the Rudman federal courthouse and Christa McAuliffe Elementary School which was across the street from the rooming house where Colby was living at the time, the report stated.

The detective also tracked Silva's "user-generated activity and physical activity" to create a timeline between the reported drug sale, sometime between 9:23 and 9:27 p.m., a final text he sent to someone around 9:37 p.m. with two words, "or golf," and 4:37 a.m., when the woman called 911 after finding Silva's body. The detective also spoke to a neighbor who knew Colby confirming it was his cell phone number, the report said.

On Sept. 25, 2020, a detective attempted to reach Colby but he did not return a phone call. Three months later, two detectives went to Hickory Hill Road in Epping to speak with Colby where he was living with his girlfriend and her family. She also knew Silva and called him "a good dude," the report stated. Colby called him, "an honest person," an "awesome dude," and said Silva had offered him work and saw him last during the summer, according to detectives. He said that he did not know he died of an overdose, the report stated. The work, Colby reportedly told the detectives, was to "keep the rent going" because he was having a rough time and could not find a job in Concord.

Colby, according to the affidavit, was given a walkthrough about the case by the detectives — including the text messages between Colby and Silva, discussing "2," presumed to be $200 in drugs, and photos of Silva leaving his home and going to Colby's building. The report stated Colby confirmed Silva was at his room, got $200 from him, and that they were talking but denied the money was a drug purchase.

"Nothing," Colby is accused of saying about the conversation. "We were just talking about it. He asked me if I would work the next day and then, that was it, and that's exactly what happened."

Colby denied repeatedly selling Silva drugs saying he would not sell drugs to anyone who was clean, the affidavit said. He also claimed to be clean himself, the detectives alleged. Colby ended the interview but said to the detectives, while leaving them, "I didn't give him anything," the affidavit stated.

On Feb. 11, detectives spoke to the property manager of the rooming house Colby was staying in at the time. She confirmed he was a tenant, at about $180 to $200 per week for a room. However, she complained there were "too many people coming in and out of the building to see him" and "they often blocked the driveway," the report stated.

"(She) thought perhaps this traffic could be related to drugs," the detective wrote, "but could not say for sure."

The property manager also confirmed the cellphone number was Colby's, the report stated.

Detectives spoke to a mutual friend of Silva who was also a heroin user on March 9. That witness claimed Colby was their "middle man" for them to buy heroin and the three of them often drove to Manchester to score, the report said.

Colby, the report stated, had prior arrests for cocaine possession in 2007 and Oxycodone in Litchfield that was later dropped. He overdosed on Sept. 13, and Sept. 14, 2019, at the rooming house, according to police records.

On March 19, the detective filed the affidavit and Colby was arrested about a week later.

According to superior court records, Colby has an extensive criminal history dating back to 2007 when he pleaded guilty to possession-sale of a narcotic drug in Nashua. An acts prohibited: controlled drug act, rules of the road, and three carrying a weapon charges were dropped.

Colby pleaded guilty to burglary charges out of Goffstown in June 2009 and was accused of violation of probation later. Two other burglary charges in Goffstown were dropped.

About two years later, he was charged with receiving stolen property in Manchester and pleaded guilty to the charges in June 2011.

In December 2012, he was accused of two counts of receiving stolen property, attempted theft by unauthorized taking, and willful concealment in Hooksett and pleaded down in January 2014. In Hooksett again, in June 2015, he was accused of burglary, theft, attempted burglary, and criminal mischief. Some charges were dropped while he pleaded guilty to a single burglary charge in February 2018. He was accused of violation of a court order, due to nonpayment of restitution in the case, in March 2020.

In Manchester, in July 2015, he was arrested on theft and receiving stolen property charges and pleaded guilty to two of the charges in September 2015.

Editor's note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Concord Police Department and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the removal request process for New Hampshire Patch police reports.

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