Police charge 2 with selling fatal dose of heroin to Latrobe man

Latrobe police this week arrested a man and woman, charging them with selling fentanyl and heroin to a man who died of an overdose in January, according to court papers.

Kevin B. Shaffer, 48, of Latrobe and Ayla M. Taylor, 24, of Greensburg are charged with drug delivery resulting in death, criminal conspiracy and delivery, manufacturing and possession of a controlled substance in connection with the death of Michael Lee Schultheis, 63, of Latrobe.

Det. Sgt. Michael Wigand said police were dispatched to Shaffer’s home Jan. 14 after a neighbor reported seeing both Schultheis and Shaffer unresponsive in the living room.

According to court documents, Schultheis was laying between the couch and a recliner. He was dead, Wigand reported. Police seized a cell phone, pack of cigarettes and three empty stamp bags of heroin marked “Hitler” in red ink near his body.

Wigand said first responders revived Shaffer using Narcan, an anti-overdose drug. He said investigators then questioned him at the scene.

“(Shaffer) advised that he did not remember doing any heroin and did not remember anything except being woke up. Shaffer claims that he does not do heroin and does not remember doing any,” Wigand wrote in court documents.

Police recovered three full stamp bags of heroin in a couch cushion “where Shaffer had been sitting,” but Wigand reported that Shaffer continued to maintain that he did not use heroin.

According to court documents, police later seized Shaffer’s cell phone and a forensic analysis by the state Attorney General’s office found 22 text messages on Jan. 13 between Shaffer and Taylor urging her to get heroin for him.

“What’s up? Can you get the (expletive) now… I have the money,” Wigand reported one text message between the pair said.

At 8:54 a.m. Jan. 14, after investigators left Shaffer’s home, Wigand reported that an analysis of Shaffer’s Facebook messenger account indicated that he instructed Taylor to delete all text messages between the pair due to the death investigation.

During a Jan. 28 interview with Taylor, Wigand said she confirmed that she had provided Shaffer with about 40 stamp bags. She told investigators that she and a man, who is not charged, drove to Monroeville to buy the heroin.

When Taylor, who formerly lived in Derry, delivered the heroin to Shaffer’s residence late Jan. 13, she told Wigand she handed the heroin to Shaffer and watched him “give some of the purchased heroin to Schultheis,” according to court documents.

Wigand reported that an autopsy found that Schultheis had “a combination of fentanyl, heroin, amphetamines, ethanol … and cannabinoids” in his system.

Shaffer was arrested Monday and ordered held in the county jail on $100,000 bond. Taylor was released on $25,000 unsecured bond after she was arraigned Tuesday.

According to online dockets, neither Shaffer nor Taylor have any prior criminal record in Pennsylvania. Neither had attorneys listed in court dockets.