A Coffey Hill Road resident has been charged with a felony after police say he helped a Brown County man buy heroin. That man died hours later of an overdose.
Daniel M. Alton, 25, was charged with aiding, inducing or causing dealing in a narcotic drug, a Level 5 felony, Oct. 18.
Alton already had been charged with three other drug-related felonies and a misdemeanor Sept. 18, including possession of a narcotic drug, unlawful possession of a syringe, maintaining a common nuisance and possession of paraphernalia.
Police served a search warrant on his home Sept. 15. Patricia G. Alton, 55, and Samuel L. Martin, 23, were also charged with felonies after the search.
In that search, police seized Daniel Alton’s cellphone. They reviewed text messages and his Facebook account.
There were thousands of text messages on the phone, many of them containing evidence of drug activity, according to a report by Brown County Sheriff’s Det. Paul Henderson, who specializes in narcotics investigations.
In September, local police had responded to an overdose death in which a small amount of drugs, believed to be heroin, was found next to the victim’s body. The victim’s family gave police permission to search his phone to investigate the events leading up to his death.
Police were able to match Alton’s phone number with a number that had been texting the overdose victim about drug deals, the affidavit states.
The victim texted Alton the day of the overdose, talking about buying $100 worth of heroin after he expected to run out in the next few days, the police report said.
Henderson also reported finding Facebook messages the day before the victim died that show Alton had a source for heroin and that he made arrangements for the victim to get his last known batch of the drug, the affidavit states.
“Thanks again for everything and look forward to kicking it soon so I can dab u out!” the victim wrote on the day of his death.
A search warrant for Daniel Alton’s phone was granted, but before the warrant could be served, police received another tip about Daniel Alton and drug activity. This resulted in the search warrant for his home being served Sept. 15.
While searching Alton’s phone, police found a conversation between Daniel Alton and a contact named “MOM.”
“bro do you think they go through his phone to see where he got the (expletive) he OD’d on?” Daniel Alton wrote at 5:43 a.m., two days after the death.
“I doubt it but (I don’t know)” the contact MOM responded.
Police also spoke with a person who was mentioned in other text message exchanges. He told police he had taken the overdose victim and Daniel Alton to Indianapolis to buy heroin the day before the victim died. He reported seeing Daniel Alton get out of the car, meet a dealer, then get back in the car before returning to Brown County, the affidavit states.
There were other messages on the phone that discussed drug-dealing events leading up to the victim’s death as well as after it, including Daniel Alton trying to find someone he could sell “coke” to.
Daniel Alton was at the scene of a different overdose earlier this year, in March, police said. It occurred on Coffey Hill Road, where Alton lives. That victim refused to tell police where the heroin came from.
Henderson reported that drug users will often hide their source of drugs in order to avoid losing connections and becoming “dope sick” — when a drug user becomes extremely sick from the lack of opiates in their system.
A jury trial for Daniel Alton has been scheduled 8 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 13.
