Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office
A man is headed to state prison for supplying the drugs that led to a woman’s death in a Tullytown Borough recovery home.
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Matthew Derby Lavender, 26, of Bensalem Township, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, involuntary manslaughter, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of a controlled substance at the Bucks County Justice Center on Monday.
Bucks County Senior Judge Rea Boylan sentenced Lavender to concurrent sentences of two to five years in a state correctional institution. She also ordered he be screened for a drug treatment program, undergo mental health and drug and alcohol screening, and pay court costs.
Lavender provided the drugs that killed 25-year-old Nikki Lee Silva. She died on July 2, 2021 after suffering impacts from the drugs at the recovery house in the 400 block of Main Street.
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Silva’s mother told the court Monday about her sadness and feeling of loss after the death of her daughter.
“There is no way to express my profound loss,” she said.
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During the investigation by Tullytown Borough police and the Bucks County Detectives’ Drug Strike Force, Lavender said he took Silva to the Kensington section of Philadelphia before her death to buy drugs. In the city, Lavender took money from her to purchase six bags of fentanyl from a street dealer, according to court papers.
The Bensalem Township man bought the drugs and provided them to Silva, who then used the fentanyl, leading to her overdose, authorities said.
An autopsy found that Silva died of accidental acute fentanyl intoxication. She was found to have fentanyl and norfentanyl in her system, authorities said.
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