Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office
A Levittown man was charged Wednesday afternoon with supplying the drugs that led to a woman’s 2021 death.
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Steven Frederick Yard Jr., 31, of Tullytown Borough’s Levittown section, was preliminarily arraigned before District Judge Jan Vislosky on charges of drug delivery resulting in death, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released on $100,000 unsecured bail.
According to court papers, Falls Township officers were called at 11:14 p.m. on November 16, 2021 to the 100 block of Yardley Avenue in the Fallsington section for a report of an overdose.
At the scene, officers found Mary Coyle, 39, deceased on a bed, with Yard actively overdosing on the floor in the same bedroom, police said.
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Yard survived the overdose after being taken to Jefferson Bucks Hospital, police said.
Falls Township police Detective Stephen Reeves spoke with Yard in the emergency room and learned that the Tullytown Borough man had traveled to the Kensington section of Philadelphia and purchased 12 bags of heroin for himself and Coyle. He then returned to the Fallsington home and both used heroin, authorities said.
Coyle was found dead on the bed when Yard woke up after the duo snorted heroin. He flipped her over and started performing CPR, according to his account to Reeves.
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When the officers arrived, Yard had already done another bag of heroin and thrown several additional bags of heroin under a couch in the room, police said.
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A search of the bedroom led to investigators finding bags often used to package heroin and six bags that contained suspected heroin/fentanyl. A dollar bill used to snort drugs was seized, police said.
Coyle was wearing a bath robe at the time she died, and a deputy coroner found three bags that appeared to contain drugs in the robe, police said.
Reeves wrote in court papers that Yard’s cell phone records were searched and indicated that he traveled to Philadelphia the evening before police were called found Coyle dead.
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Court papers noted that Coyle’s last phone usage was around 7:17 p.m. the on November 15, 2021, the day before she was found dead.
The records do not note a time when Coyle died, but they indicate she could have been deceased in the room for some time before she was located when police arrived.
Following an autopsy, it was determined that Coyle had died from acute fentanyl intoxication, and lab tests revealed that fentanyl had been detected in all of the bags. A dollar bill located was found to contain drugs after a test, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in court.
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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.
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