Latrobe father in 'prison of grief' after son's drug overdose, he tells judge at drug dealer's sentencing

Robert J. Verscharen helped his mother pick out flowers every spring and summer and hang suet cakes for birds in the fall.

Now, Carole and Robert S. Verscharen mourn their son daily, after he died from a drug overdose nearly four years ago.

“I continue to talk with him now mentally and I continue to feel his presence,” Robert S. Verscharen testified in court on Friday. “Our golden years of retirement have been a prison of grief.”

He asked a judge to sentence the man convicted of providing his son with the fatal dose of drugs — Zachary Dunlap, 31, of Latrobe — to a different kind of prison. Judge Timothy Krieger did just that, ordering Dunlap to spend 10 to 20 years in a state prison on charges of drug delivery resulting in death, conspiracy and possession with intent to deliver.

Dunlap was found guilty by a jury in October of the charges related to the Jan. 8, 2021, death of Robert J. Verscharen, 39, at his Latrobe home. An autopsy showed he had fentanyl, along with a number of other controlled substances, in his system, according to trial testimony.

During his time at the Westmoreland County Prison while awaiting trial and sentencing, Dunlap has tested positive for drugs three times, according to his attorney Ken Noga. One of those positive tests came after the conviction, said Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker. That called for a stiff punishment, she argued.

“Where most criminal defendants who are awaiting sentencing have a tendency to run like the wind to drug and alcohol treatment … the defendant doesn’t do that,” Ranker said.

Noga pointed to Dunlap’s continued struggle with addiction and a rough childhood that involved foster care in asking for a reduced sentence. Dunlap first started using heroin upon reconnecting with his biological mother as an adult, Noga said.

“That is a very different portrait of how Mr. Dunlap was raised compared to Mr. Verscharen,” he argued.

Krieger said he’d like to lighten Dunlap’s sentence after learning of his upbringing, but weighed that against the impact of Verscharen’s death on his family, Dunlap’s continued drug use and his extensive criminal history.

“As tough as it may sound, this is an opportunity to change your life,” he said.

Dunlap was given credit for about two and a half years served in jail. He was ordered to pay $8,700 in restitution.

In a statement read before his sentence was imposed, Dunlap apologized and said he wasn’t considering the potential consequences when he sold drugs to a co-defendant — Megan Wingard, 38, of Latrobe, who provided some of the stash to Verscharen, according to testimony. She was sentenced earlier this month to two years of probation on a conspiracy charge.

“I was trying to pay for my next fix but I was also trying to help a fellow addict,” Dunlap said Friday. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to live this way anymore. I want to change. I know my fate is in your hands.”