Skippack Fentanyl Dealer, 20, Sentenced To 4-8 Years For Fatal OD

NORRISTOWN, PA -- A 20-year-old Skippack man has been sentenced to prison after he dealt a fatal fentanyl dose his friend just over a year ago, court documents show.

Patrick Yahner pleaded guilty to the criminal homicide charge of drug delivery resulting death back in June, and was sentenced to four to eight years behind bars in Montgomery County Court this week, according to court documents. The victim was his friend, 20-year-old Justin Service of Perkiomen, who had just left a drug recovery program months before.

Service, who had undergone treatment at a center in January 2017, contacted Yahner on the night of April 8, 2017 to obtain drugs, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Unlike what is often the case, Service did not take the fentanyl thinking it was heroin; recovered text messages between Service and Yahner show that Service specifically asked for something called "f," later confirmed by authorities to be fentanyl.

The pair initially were going to meet at Target in Royersford but then decided to meet at the Dollar Tree in Trappe, according to police reports.

They met sometime after 11:13 p.m. for the buy. Service's mother found him dead in the basement of their home in Perkiomen Township at 11:10 a.m. the next morning, authorities said.

Text message records show that Yahner obtained the fentanyl from a supplier named Jeff in Skippack, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

A lengthy investigation eventually led police to Yahner. Undercover officers arranged a meeting with Yahner at the Dollar Tree, and he was taken into custody on Sept. 19, 2017. According to police, Yahner admitted that he was the one who provided the fentanyl that killed Service, and cooperated with the investigation from that point on.

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