Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office
A Middletown Township woman was sentenced Wednesday to state prison after pleading guilty to providing the drugs that killed a man in Bristol Township.
Katelyn Marlee Harkins, 32, pleaded guilty before Bucks County Judge Brian McGuffin to drug delivery resulting in death, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, involuntary manslaughter, and recklessly endangering another person. She was sentenced by the judge to 11.5 years to 24 years in state prison, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
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In court papers, investigators said Harkins provided the drugs that killed Matthew David Reiner, 27, of Levittown, in July 2018. He was found inside the Village Lodge motel on along Route 13 near Beaver Dam Road and died the next day.
An autopsy found that Reiner’s death was caused by a combination of fentanyl, acetyl-fentanyl, and methamphetamine toxicity, authorities said.
Harkins told county and township detectives that she sold drugs to Reiner before his death. She had been with a group at the motel who traveled to Philadelphia to buy drugs to sell.
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Prosecutors said about 15 of Reiner’s family members attended the sentencing at the Justice Center and his mom provided a victim impact statement.
“I was completely numb,” she said of her son’s death. “I screamed, cried and could not believe my youngest son was gone.”
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Reiner’s mother praised the work of Bristol Township officers Dennis Leighton and Edmond O’Brien “for investigating this case for over a year and a half to bring this justice for Matthew.”
“For over two years, Officers Dennis Leighton and Edmond O’Brien pursued justice for Matthew Reiner, a young man whose life ended too soon. Without their exceptional work and relentless effort, today’s result would not be possible,” Deputy District Attorney Thomas Gannon said in a statement.
Also before the judge, Harkins pleaded guilty to an incident where she provided drugs to a fellow inmate at the Bucks County Correctional Facility before taking the rest herself. The inmate overdosed and was revived after receiving two doses of Narcan.
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She additionally pleaded guilty to selling heroin twice to a police informant in 2019 and to having meth in her Middletown Township home in 2018.
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