Upper Moreland Overdose Death Trial To Begin In September

UPPER MORELAND, PA — A Philadelphia woman is scheduled to go on trial this fall in Montgomery County Court on charges that she supplied a fatal amount of opioids to a local man who died of an overdose over four years ago.

Johneia Marie Garrett, 26, will face a jury trial in mid-September for her alleged role in the death of Nicholas Golden, a resident of the Willow Grove section of Upper Moreland Township, who died in his home in the spring of 2019 from a heroin and fentanyl overdose.

Courts records show that a jury trial is scheduled begin on Sept. 13 at the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.

A criminal docket sheet in the case shows that Garrett is facing the following charges: drug delivery resulting in death; criminal use of a communication facility; manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver; involuntary manslaughter; tamper with/fabricate physical evidence; recklessly endangering another person; and possessing a controlled substance by a person not registered.

According to a report in Main Line Media News, Garrett would have likely been tried earlier, but things got postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If Garrett is convicted on the most serious charges, she is looking at possibly spending between 20 to 40 years behind bars.

Upper Moreland Police detectives had identified Garrett and another person as the individuals who had supplied Golden with the fatal dose of drugs by combing cellphone texts and Facebook messages, according to the Main Line Media News report, which cited the criminal complaint written jointly by a county detective and an Upper Moreland detective.

Court records show that the trial will be presided over by Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge William R. Carpenter. The docket sheet lists Garrett’s defense attorney as Norristown-based lawyer Thomas C. Egan and county Assistant District Attorney Gabrielle Christine Hughes is listed as the prosecutor in the case.