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Lamar Campbell of Trenton pleaded guilty to strict liability for drug-induced death and related counts in a Mercer County courtroom last Friday, Dec. 8, said the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.
The investigation began on June 29, 2019, after Morrisville police found 40-year-old Joseph Prieth dead in an apartment on Plaza Boulevard, prosecutors said.
Prieth was discovered in a bathroom surrounded by "used heroin bags" and a hypodermic syringe, said authorities. His autopsy later revealed acute intoxication from heroin and fentanyl as his cause of death, they added.
Detectives searched Prieth's cellphone and found that he had been buying drugs from Campbell, according to prosecutors. Further investigation revealed that Prieth bought the bag that killed him at the Trenton train station, police said.
Bucks County Detectives Drug Strike Force detectives set up two "controlled buys" of drugs from Campbell before setting up a sting, the DA's Office said. Campbell was arrested at the Trenton train station in December 2019 with 89 bags of heroin/fentanyl in his possession, authorities said.
Campbell was first charged in Bucks County until a state Supreme Court ruling withdrew the case, as the sale of drugs to Prieth did not occur in Pennsylvania, officials said.
His case was then taken up by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.
The 44-year-old was sentenced to seven years in state prison and five years of probation, said the Bucks DA's Office.
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