Latrobe man gets 10-year prison sentence for sale of fatal drugs

A Latrobe man will serve up to 10 years in prison for selling the drugs that killed his friend in a Derry social club in 2018.

Kyle Clem, 30, received a mitigated sentence on Friday that authorities said was reduced because of his cooperation with a grand jury investigation into the July 18, 2018, fatal overdose of 28-year-old John Sessi.

According to a grand jury presentment, Sessi contacted Clem to purchase heroin in the parking lot of the Derry Ukrainian Club, an exchange that was recorded by video surveillance. Sessi later was found unresponsive in a bathroom and died at a hospital from acute combined drug toxicity of heroin and fentanyl, police said.

Clem told the grand jury in April 2019 he purchased 10 stamp bags from Michael Lilliock, 36, of West Newton at the Boot Scoot’n Saloon in Sewickley Township and kept four for himself, selling the rest to Sessi, according to court documents. Clem was warned by Lilliock of the substantial strength of the drugs, and Clem passed along that message to Sessi, police said.

Clem pleaded guilty in July to charges of drug delivery resulting in death. He was sentenced by Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani to serve 4 1/2-to-10 years in prison.

Deputy Attorney General Tomm Mutschler said Sessi’s reduced sentenced was agreed to by Sessi’s parents and based on Clem’s cooperation with the grand jury.

Clem, who appeared at Friday’s sentencing by video from the county jail, where he has been held since his arrest in May 2019, apologized to Sessi’s parents who were in court for the hearing.

“I’m so very sorry. John was a good friend and that’s why I felt obligated to help,” Clem said about his testimony to the grand jury.

Lilliock also was charged with drug delivery resulting in death and he, too, testified before the grand jury.

His case is pending, although he is expected to plead guilty next year, Mutschler said.