Middletown Woman Gets Prison For Selling Deadly Overdose Drugs

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP, PA — A Middletown Township woman will serve up to 24 years in prison after admitting to selling methamphetamine and heroin laced with fentanyl, which a man later used to overdose.

Katelyn Marlee Harkins, 32, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges in the July 2018 death of 27-year-old Matthew Reiner, who overdosed at the Village Lodge on Bristol Pike.

Common Pleas Judge Brian T. McGuffin sentenced her to 11 1/2-24 years in state prison.

Reiner's overdose happened on July 19, 2018. He was pronounced dead the next day and an autopsy found the cause to be a combination of fentanyl, acetyl-fentanyl and meth. Investigators learned that Harkins was with a group of people who bought drugs in Philadelphia, then went to the motel to sell them.

During an interview with the Bristol Township Police Department and Bucks County District Attorney's Office, she admitted to selling heroin and meth to Reiner. About 15 of Reiner's family members were in court Wednesday.

His mother spoke, thanking Bristol Township police officers for spending more than a year and a half investigating the case.

"For over two years, Officers Dennis Leighton and Edmond O'Brien pursued justice for Matthew Reiner, a young man whose life ended too soon, said Deputy District Attorney Thomas C. Gannon. "Without their exceptional work and relentless effort, today’s result would not be possible."

Charges against Harkins were filed in April.

She also pleaded guilty in three other drug cases, including one in which she provided drugs that caused an inmate at the Bucks County Correctional Facility to overdose. The inmate was revived after two doses of Narcan.