New Kensington man takes guilty plea to lesser charges in fatal drug overdose case

A New Kensington man originally charged as the person who supplied drugs in two fatal overdoses two years ago on Monday pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Theodore Brown, 25, was facing two counts of drug delivery resulting in death in connection with the Nov. 5, 2017 overdoses of Malachai E. Mundorff in Derry and the Kenneth Wayne Blystone in Hempfield. Police said Brown was the supplier of fentanyl-laced heroin sold to a Unity man who provided the drugs to both victims.

The suspected middle-man in the deaths, Jesse Hudspath, 27, was charged with drug delivery resulting in death counts and testified against Brown during a preliminary hearing following their arrests.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar said Hudspath was to be the prosecution’s key witnesses during Brown’s nonjury trial scheduled for Monday.

“We expected him to testify,” Lazar said of Hudspath. “We never made him a (plea) offer and were made aware, but for reasons I may or may not understand, he said last week he won’t testify without a deal and I am still unwilling to make a deal just to get his testimony.”

Without Hudspath’s testimony, Lazar said the case against Brown was damaged and led to the more serious charges against him being dropped.

In court Monday, Brown pleaded guilty to conspiracy and two lesser drug-related counts. The dismissed drug delivery resulting in death offenses carried maximum sentences of 40 years in prison.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio sentenced Brown to serve 11 1/2-to-23 months in jail and ordered him to be immediately paroled. Brown served nearly a year behind bars until he was released on house arrest in June. He was ordered to serve two additional years on probation.

According to police, Hudspath identified Brown as the man who sold him 50 bags of heroin, which he shared with Mundorff and Blystone. Hudspath previously testified he gave Blystone, 53, two bags after he drove him to meet Brown to purchase the drugs. Mundorff was given 25 bags of heroin, Hudspath previously testified.

Mundorff, 21, was found unconscious in the bathroom of his Derry Township home shortly after 3:30 a.m. Police confiscated stamp bags marked “Good Work” from inside his shorts.

Stamp bags with the same markings were found at Blystone’s Hempfield Towers apartment, where his roommate found him dead about an hour later, police said.

Lazar said Hudspath’s refusal to testify without a plea deal in place left the case against Brown in jeopardy. Although Hudspath relented that over the weekend the deal with Brown had already been reached, Lazar said.

“The responsibility was being split by two people before but now it falls to just him,” Lazar said of Hudspath.

Hudspath, who is free after posting $500,000 bail following his arrest in July 2017, is scheduled to appear Tuesday before Bilik-DeFazio for a hearing to update the status of his case.