Six Years For Long Branch Man Who Caused Woman's Overdose Death

LONG BRANCH, NJ — A Long Branch man was sentenced last Wednesday to six years in state prison after he admitted to causing the heroin overdose death of a woman in Tinton Falls last February, 2020.

Lateef Reevey, 31, of Long Branch pleaded guilty on December 14 to a first-degree crime of strict liability for drug-induced death in connection with the fatal overdose of Lucy Yardley, 25, of Flanders, New Jersey, said the Monmouth County Prosecutor, which prosecuted the case.

Reevey will be required to serve 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Yardely died on February 21, 2020.

At approximately 6:07 p.m. that day, the Tinton Falls Police Department received a 911 call of a possible overdose victim in a local motel room. Responding officers located the victim, Lucy Yardley, lying on the bathroom floor of Room 314. She was unconscious and not breathing.

Despite the lifesaving efforts of the Tinton Falls Police Department, the Tinton Falls First Aid Squad and MONOC Paramedics, Yardley was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Police determined she had ingested heroin shortly before she died and the investigation ultimately identified Reevey as having communicated with the victim the day prior.

The very next day, Feb. 22, police located Reevey back in the parking lot of the same local motel with heroin and cocaine, packaged for sale, as well as two cell phones.

As he was approached by police, Reevey broke one of the two phones, which he had used to communicate with Yardley two days earlier.

He was taken into custody and charged with two counts of third-degree possession of CDS, two counts of third-degree possession of CDS with intent to distribute, one count of third-degree conspiracy to distribute, one count of fourth-degree tampering with physical evidence and the disorderly persons offense of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Under New Jersey law, a person who distributes a controlled dangerous substance (CDS or drugs) is strictly liable for a death which results from the injection, inhalation or ingestion of that substance.

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