Man Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter In Woman's Death In Point Pleasant

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Barnegat man has pleaded to supplying the drugs that caused a woman to overdose in Point Pleasant in 2019, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office has announced.

Curtis Geathers, 37, of Barnegat, pleaded guilty to manslaughter before Superior Court Judge Rochelle Gizinski in connection with the woman's death in Point Pleasant on Jan. 10, 2019.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 22, at which time prosecutors are recommending four years in prison as part of the plea agreement, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said. The plea agreement was reached with approval from the victim's family, he said.

Point Pleasant officers found the woman unresponsive in a borough home on Jan. 10, 2019, and took her to Ocean University Medical Center in Brick, where she died two days later, Billhimer said.

Investigators learned Geathers had supplied heroin and fentanyl that was distributed to the victim the day she overdosed. A toxicology report received by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the cause of her death to be acetyl fentanyl toxicity, authorities said.

In addition to the sentencing on the manslaughter charge, Geathers also pled guilty to an unrelated charge of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute, and prosecutors are recommending a sentence of five years in prison to run concurrently with the manslaughter sentence, which has a no early release provision.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Ashley Angelo prosecuted the case. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit and Narcotics Strike Force, Point Pleasant police, Berkeley Township police, Seaside Heights police, Toms River police and the Toms River Police Department Special Enforcement Team, and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit investigated.