Woman sentenced in fatal overdose | News, Sports, Jobs

Angela Michelle Miles, 24, apologized this week in Blair County Court for her role in selling fentanyl-laced heroin that killed of Joshua M. Blowers of Tyrone. He was found dead May 31, 2017, in the bathroom of an apartment on the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Tyrone.

“I’m really sorry my actions caused the loss of someone’s life,” Miles told President Judge Elizabeth Doyle, who accepted the guilty pleas to charges of drug delivery resulting in death, participation in a corrupt organization, criminal conspiracy to heroin delivery and possession with intent to deliver. “Now that I’m sober … I realize my actions did cause that.”

Chief Public Defender Russ Montgomery said Miles “got addicted hard and fast” but no longer uses.

Records show she has been incarcerated in Blair County Prison since her arrest on June 2, 2017.

In tracking the source of the fentanyl-laced heroin found with Blowers, stamped “Ride or Die,” a joint investigation by Tyrone and Altoona police revealed that it allegedly came from Kyler Johnson, who lived in the apartment where Blowers was found dead.

Further investigation allowed police to learn that Johnson allegedly bought the fentanyl-laced heroin from Robert Noel of Tyrone and that Noel reportedly bought fentanyl-laced heroin from Miles, who was supposed to be selling 500 to 750 heroin packets a week.

Police also identified Shariff Lucas, a Tyrone native who was living in Altoona, as the person who allegedly supplied Miles with heroin.

Lucas, Johnson and Noel are also charged with drug delivery resulting in death and related charges in connection with Blowers’ death. But their cases have yet to be resolved, making Miles the first link in the chain to take responsibility for what happened.

Police also charged a fifth person, Christopher Trem­mel of Altoona, in connection with Blowers’ death because Tremmel allegedly damaged Blowers’ cellphone to destroy evidence.

First Assistant District Attorney Pete Weeks advised Doyle that Blowers’ family was unable to attend Miles’ sentencing. But Weeks advised that Blowers’ sister, Heather Johnson, had provided a written statement and Doyle allowed Weeks to read it into the court record.

The statement, partly taken from an internet website, was penned as a letter to a drug dealer and reflected no known author. In part, the letter reads:

“Dear Drug Dealer:

“I wonder, if you knew the destruction of what you do, would you stop? Would you turn your life around knowing you were saving lives and families by doing so?

“If you could follow all the little bags you exchange for cash on their full journey, would it make you feel remorse?

“If you could see the child in fear, hiding in her older sibling’s bedroom while her parents fight; if you could see the children hungry, going to school with no lunch, making their own way because their parents handed all their cash to you;

“If you could see the children who cry themselves to sleep at night because their parents have split up and they don’t see their dad who they were once so close to anymore;

“If you could see the wife that cries because the man she loves with all her heart has lost his way and she can’t help him back. … If you could see all the depression, all the pain, all the heartache, all the hopelessness, all the fear, all the people’s lives it destroys, dear Drug Dealer, would you stop?”

Johnson also added her own words to the letter and directed them at Miles, who started crying in court and needed a tissue for her tears.

“Angela, I wonder if you were truly able to follow each and every (bag) you’ve sold, not just the one that led to my brother’s death, but all of them, and watch closely with a sober mind and heart full of love, how would it affect you?” she asked. “How would you feel seeing just what that (bag) does to someone and the effect it has on their family?”

Johnson also advised that she has turned to God for help.

“I pray God continues to work on my heart to keep an outpouring of forgiveness for what you have helped cause,” Johnson said. “But also, (I pray) that God works even harder in your heart and those struggling with addiction or to the dealer who selling is a way of making a living.”