Delco Man Faces 20 Years For Selling Fatal Drug Dose

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — A Delaware County man was sent to state prison for up to two decades for providing the drugs that led to a man’s overdose death in Middletown Township in July 2018, authorities said.

Theodore Jackson, 36, pleaded no contest on Jan. 17, to drug delivery resulting in death, involuntary manslaughter, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, criminal use of a communications facility, recklessly endangering another person, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Following the plea, Common Pleas Judge Gary B. Gilman sentenced him to seven to 20 years in state prison, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.

Jackson was charged in June 2020, nearly two years after the death of 32-year-old Christopher Felten in an apartment in Middletown Township.

On July 18, 2018, Middletown Township Police were dispatched at 9:31 a.m. to an apartment in the 2100 block of East Lincoln Highway on a report of an unresponsive male.

First responders located Felten who was not breathing. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead a short time later.

As part of the investigation by the Middletown Township Police Department and Bucks County Detectives, Felten’s phone was analyzed, and investigators located a drug-related conversation on one of his social media accounts with an account that belonged to Jackson.

In the conversation, which happened the day before Felten’s death, Jackson directed Felten to come to a home in Delaware County to purchase drugs. A further review showed that the two had similar drug-related conversations since June 2017.

The investigation concluded that Jackson bought five bags of heroin from West Philadelphia and then sold them to Felten for $20, resulting in his overdose death.

An autopsy was conducted and found that Felten died of methylfentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity.
The investigation was assisted by the Marple Township Police Department in Delaware County.