Man Charged Following Incident That Left His Girlfriend Dead Of An Overdose

A Levittown man has been charged with seven misdemeanors in an incident that left his girlfriend dead of a heroin overdose last year, according to court papers filed this week.

Brian O’Neill, 36, was charged via summons with obstructing law enforcement, theft, obstructing emergency services, tampering with evidence, possession of marijuana, use or possession of drug paraphernalia, and false reporting.

On February 26, 2017 shortly before 11 p.m., Middletown officers were called to investigate a suspicious death in an apartment along Woodbourne Road in Levittown. Upon arrival, a township detective met with a patrol officer who relayed that a 9-1-1 call had been placed shortly after 8 p.m. for a fainting and then a cardiac arrest victim. Members of Penndel-Middletown Emergency Squad and the William Penn Fire Company had responded and performed CPR on 34-year-old April Mondile.

According to court documents, the patrol officer had encountered a man, later identified as O’Neill, on the scene who told officers he was the victim’s boyfriend. He stated that his girlfriend had walked out of the bathroom and passed out. The man thought the woman was joking so he threw water on her. At the time, police confronted the man about possible drug use to which O’Neill repeatedly denied any involvement.

The woman was transported to the Aria Hospital’s Bucks County campus in Falls Township where she was pronounced dead. Officers allege that O’Neil disappeared from the emergency room as soon as he learned from hospital staff that Mondile had died and he was located a short time later at the woman’s Middletown apartment.

At that point, the woman’s cause of death had not yet been determined, but a hospital physician expressed concerns to officers that the woman had suffered possible injuries to her head and face. Officers, then in anticipation of an investigation into a struggle or assault, began photographing the woman’s apartment, as noted in police record.

In a conversation with police, O’Neill once again denied any drug use that evening by him or his girlfriend. He also told police he was not on the lease and by his own admission was not supposed to be there. When police allowed him to collect some of his belongings and leave, O’Neill became belligerent and uncooperative. After noting a strong odor of marijuana, police performed a search on a backpack O’Neill indicated was his. A search discovered several plastic Ziploc-style baggies containing suspected marijuana and a metal grinder with suspected marijuana residue. Police also noted possible drug paraphernalia in the apartment’s trash can, according to court papers filed by Detective David Denton.

Police informed O’Neill that he was under arrest for possession of a suspected controlled substance and suspected drug paraphernalia and he was transported to police headquarters, authorities said.

Once at the station, according to a probable cause affidavit, O’Neill became visibly upset, telling officers he really wanted to talk to them about how his girlfriend died. O’Neill told officers that the couple had traveled to Trenton earlier in the day and bought a bundle of heroin (10-12 bags) from a street dealer. After dinner later in the evening, the couple got high and his girlfriend passed out. O’Neill said that after he tried reviving her and was unsuccessful, he called 9-1-1, and then went to the bathroom to flush the bags of heroin that were left. He told investigators that he had already snorted two bags and believed his girlfriend had also snorted two bags until he realized there were only five left in the bundle.

O’Neill told officers that once he learned she had passed, he used an Uber to get a ride back to her apartment because he “didn’t want to see her again that way, or remember her that way”. He also told officers he never informed his girlfriend’s family that she had passed away.

While O’Neill denied that any physical assault had occurred, he told officers that he stayed quiet when help arrived because he was scared, despite paramedics having the potential to save her life with the use of Narcan, police said.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.