Pennsylvania Charges Dropped Against Wheeling Residents in Drug Death
Charges Filed In Ohio County, Where Alleged Fentanyl Delivery Took Place
Felony charges against two West Virginia residents, who were accused of selling a deadly batch of fentanyl to a man in Wheeling before he overdosed and died in Washington County last year, were dropped recently because the alleged drug deal happened out of state.
Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of drug delivery resulting in death and other related counts against Jeanna Marie Hastings and Alex Thomas Lichwa to allow authorities in West Virginia to handle the case. Hastings appeared in Washington County Court of Common Pleas on Friday, while Lichwa made his appearance Monday morning.
Hastings and Lichwa were accused of selling several stamp bags of fentanyl to 32-year-old Nathan Wright in the early hours of March 26, 2023, when they met in the Elm Grove neighborhood of Wheeling. Wright then traveled with his fiancee, Samantha Haynes, to the Eighty Four section of North Strabane Township and stayed at a mobile home while she went to work for the day.
When Haynes returned to the residence, she found Wright dead of an apparent drug overdose.
Hastings, 38, and Lichwa, 32, both of Wheeling, were later charged with selling Wright the deadly drugs that allegedly caused his death. They were both extradited to Pennsylvania, where their cases were moving through the Washington County Courthouse until prosecutors here decided they could not pursue the case since the drug sale occurred in West Virginia.
“We sent it back to where we believe jurisdiction is,” Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh said Monday. “We worked it out with authorities in West Virginia since they have jurisdiction, and they filed charges over there.”
Both are now facing charges in Ohio County, although they remain at the Washington County jail without bond while they await extradition back to West Virginia.