Three in jail after overdose death

Three people remain in jail after a Wooster woman was found dead of a suspected fentanyl overdose on West Vine Street.

Wooster Police and Fire departments were called to the residence at 332 W. Vine St., at 11:19 a.m. on call of an unconscious female, who was later confirmed to have died from suspected fentanyl. The woman was Jolene Denise Haven, 44, of Wooster.

As a result, Molly Daugherty, 28, of Wooster and Akron residents Mario DeMarkus Stevens, 28, and Brooklynn Lane Edding, 21, were all arrested in connection with the investigation by the Medway Drug Enforcement Agency.

According to a news release from Medway and court records, Daugherty was arrested after she allegedly admitted to selling Haven the suspected fentanyl. She was already on probation in Wayne County from a 2015 drug trafficking case.

A community control violation was filed Wednesday in court against Daugherty.

During the investigation, Daugherty also admitted to buying the powdered substance (which field-tested positive for fentanyl) from Stevens and Edding. She placed a call back to Stevens and Edding to bring more fentanyl to her and provided law enforcement with physical and vehicle descriptions of the two.

Law enforcement was able to stop their vehicle for multiple moving violations on State Route 585. They denied having any drugs on their person but, when they were searched at the Wayne County Jail, two plastic baggies were located in Edding's bra that field-tested as fentanyl.

A total of 10 grams of fentanyl valued at $3,000 was found on Edding when she was booked in jail.

Edding and Stevens have been charged with felony charges of aggravated possession of drugs and remain in jail, as of Thursday. Their bonds have been set at $100,000 cash or surety.

They have preliminary hearings scheduled for Sept. 13 and 15, respectively, in Wayne County Municipal Court.

Daugherty has a court date scheduled in front of Judge Mark K. Wiest on her probation violation Oct. 7 and will be sentenced Nov. 17.

Additionally, Medway Director Don Hall said via news release that the suspected fentanyl has been sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations to be tested for the presence of carfentanil, an animal tranquilizer used on elephants and other large animals. Carfentanil is estimated to be 10,000 times more powerful than morphine and has started showing up in lab tests originating from Wayne County cases.

Published by the-daily-record.com