Bensalem Man Sentenced In Fatal Overdose At Recovery Home: DA

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — A Bucks County man has been sentenced to prison after he supplied drugs to a woman in a Tullytown recovery home, which led her to overdose and death last summer.

Matthew Derby Lavender, 26, was sentenced to two to five years in state prison on Monday by Common Pleas Judge Rea B. Boylan.

Lavender 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, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.

Judge Boylan also ordered Lavender to be screened for entry into the State Drug Treatment Program, undergo mental health and drug and alcohol screening, and pay court costs related to his case.

Lavender's sentencing comes after he was found responsible for supplying Nikki Lee Silva, 25, with fentanyl on July 2, 2021. Tullytown Borough Police found a deceased Silva at a recovery home she was living in, located on the 400 block of Main Street, the night of the sale. Police found three unused bags of a substance then thought to be either heroin or fentanyl.

An autopsy of Silva determined that she had died of accidental acute fentanyl intoxication. A toxicology report also found she had fentanyl and norfentanyl in her system at the time of the overdose.

During their initial investigation, Bucks County Detectives found that Lavender was the one who supplied her with the bags. When interviewed in August of 2021, Lavender admitted to taking Silva to the Kensington area of Philadelphia prior to her overdose death.

According to Deputy District Attorney Ashley C. Towhey, who spoke at the sentencing on Monday, Lavender also admitted to taking from Silva to buy six bags of fentanyl from a local dealer. When Towhey asked Lavender if the bags contained heroin or fentanyl, he responded "They're all fentanyl. There is no heroin no more."

Silva's mother read an impact statement during the sentencing, saying that her daughter's death left a "huge feeling of emptiness" in her life.

"There is no way to express my profound loss."

Silva's mother told Judge Boylan that she is grateful to see the opioid crisis being combatted by local authorities. She hopes the charging and sentencing of dealers such as Lavender will grant "justice for the lives lost to fentanyl."