https://triblive.com/local/fentanyl-laced-pills-kill-pittsburgh-man-and-leads-to-court-date-for-suspected-dealer/
Fentanyl-laced pills kill Pittsburgh man and lead to court date for suspected dealer
A Homestead woman is headed to court on charges she sold fentanyl-laced pills that killed an area man with double the lethal levels of the drug.
Police say Sharon Holt, 52, didn’t directly sell Jason Switzer the three blue pills that the 41-year-old man thought were Oxycodone, a potent opiate.
But she sold the pills to the dealer who then sold them to Switzer in May 2022 — three pills for $150, according to a criminal complaint. Switzer had been prescribed to take 10 mg Oxycodone pills daily, police said.
A witness found Switzer unresponsive in his Carrick bedroom just five minutes after he snorted two of the pills, according to a criminal complaint in the case. Within an hour, authorities pronounced him dead.
Pittsburgh police charged Holt in 2024 — two years after Switzer’s death — with drug delivery resulting in death, recklessly endangering another person and two drug counts.
Holt was arraigned June 14, 2024 and later released from the Allegheny County Jail on a $25,000 bond, where a bondsman pays part of the bail and guarantees the full amount of money.
Her preliminary hearing, which had been rescheduled at least eight times, was held Friday, court records show. She now is set to appear at the Allegheny County Common Pleas court on Sept. 22.
Police said Switzer exchanged the cash for pills on the porch of his Maytide Street home around 5:45 p.m. on May 11, 2022, the complaint said. He then went to his bedroom to snort the pills.
A woman soon found Switzer unresponsive, the complaint said. The pills that killed him filled his heart with blood that was twice the lethal limit.
A crime lab said the third pill, found on a nearby dresser, later tested positive for fentanyl, according to the complaint.
Police did not identify why or by whom Switzer was prescribed the opiate — or the strength of the pills Switzer bought from the drug dealer.
The drug dealer, who pulled up to Switzer’s house that day in a Hummer SUV, has not been charged in the sale, as of Monday afternoon, court records show.
Attorney Thomas Merrick, who a court appointed to represent Holt, declined comment Monday.
Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)