Man Gets Prison Time For Selling Drugs That Led To Inmate Overdose

October 7, 2022

Brian Joseph O’Connell.
Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office

A Philadelphia man was sentenced to state prison for a several drug cases, including selling pills in the Bucks County Correctional Facility.

Brian Joseph O’Connell, 31, on Thursday at the Bucks County Justice Center entered open guilty pleas on three counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

In the three cases, Bucks County President Court of Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman sentenced O’Connell to 2.5 to 5 years in one case; 1 to 5 years in a second; and 2.5 to 10 years in the third. All the sentences are to run consecutively, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.

In the one case, O’Connell sold drugs at the Bucks County Correctional facility in Doylestown Township in October 2021, a day after he was booked following a drug arrest in Bensalem Township, prosecutors said.

On the morning hours of October 12, 2021, there was a medical emergency reported inside the county lockup. An inmate passed out and stopped breathing, authorities said.

A responding corrections officers started CPR and continued until the inmate was revived, authorities said.

The inmate was transported to Doylestown Hospital and survived, authorities said.

Following the medical incident, corrections officers did a contraband check and found a small blue pill and crushed blue powder on O’Connell. They also found so-called “owe sheets” for drug deals, authorities said.

Two days later, another contraband check was performed and four more blue pills were found on O’Connell, authorities said.

“Investigators with the Corrections Department spoke to the hospitalized inmate, and he said he bought the pill for $100 from an inmate who received it from O’Connell. He believed the pill to be oxycodone, but hospital tests showed fentanyl in his blood,” the district attorney’s said in a statement.

“O’Connell was interviewed by investigators and told them he came to prison with 16 small blue pills and sold six to one inmate and four to another,” the statement added.

The case that landed O’Connell in the correctional facility was out of Bensalem Township.

In that case, township officers were on patrol in the area of the Lincoln Motel on Lincoln Highway when they spotted a U-Haul van that had recently been reported stolen out of Bristol Township. Officers found O’Connell previously borrowed the van from a friend but never returned it.

“Inside the van, police found mail and Amazon packages with O’Connell’s name, along with two suspected meth pipes,” authorities said.

“The investigation led police to a room at the motel where O’Connell was staying with a woman. When police went to talk to O’Connell, they saw drug paraphernalia inside his room,” they added.

Authorities said 32.89 grams of methamphetamine and marijuana, pills, suboxone strips, and other drug paraphernalia were found during the search.

The Bucks County Detectives Drug Strike Force first came into contact with O’Connell in January 7, 2021 when he sold 27.87 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant, authorities said.

In June 2021, Upper Southampton Township police pulled O’Connell over and found 74.04 grams of methamphetamine and other drugs, including fentanyl, oxycodone, and amphetamine. Officers also recovered drug paraphernalia, ammunition, and two cellphones from the vehicle, authorities said.