Long Branch Man Caused Woman's Fatal Overdose, Said Prosecutor

LONG BRANCH, NJ — A Long Branch man pleaded guilty last week in connection to the fatal overdose death of 25-year-old woman, who overdosed in the bathroom of a Tinton Falls motel in February of this year.

Lateef Reevey, 31, of Long Branch, admitted that he provided the woman with the heroin stamped “Eternity” and that the heroin/fentanyl mixture caused her death. Under a change in New Jersey law, anyone who distributes an illegal drug can be held responsible should the drug use result in death.

Reevey pleaded guilty December 10 to the first-degree crime of strict liability for drug-induced death and third-degree drug possession conspiracy, said Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni. He will be sentenced February 9 and is facing up to six years in state prison.

Just past 6 p.m. on February 21, Tinton Falls police received a 911 call and found the woman, Lucy Yardley, lying on the bathroom floor of a local motel. She was unconscious and not breathing.

Despite the efforts of Tinton Falls police, Tinton Falls First Aid Squad and MONOC paramedics, she could not be revived and was pronounced dead.

Police said Reevey had communicated with the woman the day before she died. The next day, Feb. 22, police said they found Reevey in the parking lot of the same motel, that time in possession of heroin and cocaine, packaged for sale, as well as two cell phones.

When he was approached by police, Reevey broke one of the two phones, which he had used to communicate with Yardley two days earlier, said police. He was also charged with tampering physical evidence.

After the autopsy came back linking Yardley's death to the ingestion of heroin-fentanyl, Reevey was charged with causing a drug-induced death and giving the woman the drugs.