Fatal drugs = two deaths, three arrests

Maria Flora, The Lebanon Reporter, Ind.
·3 min read
1

Dec. 18—Boone County authorities are going after three people accused of selling illicit drugs that killed two men this year.

The three were charged this month with dealing in a controlled substance resulting in death, a level 2 felony. The only higher charge in Indiana is murder.

Victims

Jeremiah J. McClaine, 38, died June 23 in his Whitestown apartment. His cause of death was listed as fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, citalopram, and ethanol toxicity, according to court records. It was ruled accidental.

Travis Barnes' children told a volunteer delivering food to their home that their dad was on the bathroom floor, and she called 911 after looking at him Sept. 2, according to court records. His death was also ruled accidental and caused by combined intoxication by alprazolam, acetyl fentanyl, fentanyl, and morphine, according to court records.

McClaine had one son, while Barnes, 34, was the father of four children, according to court records.

Suspects

Lonnie Lee Haskins Jr., 26, of Indianapolis, is accused of selling fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl to McClaine. The pills imitated a legitimate opiate based prescription pill, Whitestown Police Cpt. John Jurkash said in a statement.

Haskins, who goes by the street name Plug, drove a red Camaro that, along with phone records, linked him to McClaine, police reported.

Karen K. Blanton, 62, of Lebanon, admitting to delivering alprazolam to Barnes the day before his death. Blanton told police she got the drug from a Thorntown woman who had a valid prescription for them, according to her probable cause affidavit.

In a separate transaction, William A. Wills, 29, of Indianapolis, admitted to selling Barnes fentanyl the day before he died, according to his probable cause affidavit. Wills, who goes by the street name Moneybagg Will, sold Barnes fentanyl/heroin, police reported.

Records of text conversations laid out drug deals between Blanton and Barnes and Wills and Barnes, police reported.

Wills was already on house arrest for dealing heroin when police questioned him in Barnes' death, according to the affidavit. On Sept. 12, 10 days after Barnes' death, Wills pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana and possession of a narcotic drug in Marion County.

A source close to the case said Wills in in federal custody in another state on an unrelated charge.

Background

A new law holding drug dealers responsible for the deaths caused by the drugs they sell took effect in July 2018, and Boone County has now charged six people with the crime.

The first, Kurt M. Russell, 53, of Indianapolis, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison this year. He sold fentanyl laced heroin that contributed to the death of Maxwell Timbrook, 28, of Zionsville.

The second, Andre Johnson, 44, of Indianapolis, is scheduled for a jury trial in May. He is implicated in the fentanyl-involved deaths of Russell Ervin, 34, of Lebanon, and Wesley Johnson, 28, of Thorntown, both in October 2020. Both were fathers.

The third, Zachary P. Taylor, 28, of Lebanon, is accused of selling a lethal dose of fentanyl to Heather Akers, 37, of Jamestown, a mother of four. She died in February.

He is being held in the Boone County Jail and is scheduled for a February trial.

The charge of dealing in a controlled substance resulting in death requires coordinated investigation work among Boone County Coroner Justin Sparks' office, Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood's office, the Indiana State Police Crime Lab, local police agencies and others, including forensic IT analysts.

"There is an increase in cases such as this concluding successfully," Jurkash said. However, they are extremely difficult cases that require tremendous effort."

A Hendricks County man was convicted last week for selling drugs to an Avon teen who died as a result.