Trial witness ties dealer to drugs prosecutors say killed Derry woman

Tyler Klapchar told a Westmoreland County jury Tuesday he watched his friend’s mother hand money to his drug dealer on Christmas Eve 2016.

“It was very apparent. She gave him money and he gave her something. I definitely saw a hand-to-hand transaction,” Klapchar testified during the second day of the trial for a Indiana County man accused of selling a fatal dose of drugs used by a Derry woman who died from an overdose on Dec. 26, 2016.

Prosecutors contend Dylan Blair, 23, of Saltsburg, sold fentanyl-laced heroin to Michelle Spillar, 38, two days earlier. Her body was found on a bedroom floor in a home she shared in Derry. One empty and two full bags of what police said contained the drugs she used to overdose were found nearby. The bags had the words “Head Game” and a picture of a skull and soccer ball stamped on its front, police said.

Blair is charged with drug delivery resulting in death and two other drug-related offenses.

During opening statements this week, defense attorney Emily Smarto argued Spillar had several drugs in her system at the time of her death and that prosecutors cannot prove it was drugs from Blair that killed her.

Klapchar told jurors he used a $100 Christmas gift from his grandmother to buy 11 bags of what he believed to be heroin from Blair. Those bags had the same markings as the drugs found near Spillar at the time of her overdose, he said.

He testified he overdosed after first using the drugs and had to be revived in a shower by Blair. That scare led him to warn Spillar about the potency.

“I told her I just overdosed and, if she used, to be careful,” Klapchar testified.

Spillar’s 25-year-old son, Devin, told jurors his mother struggled for years with drug addiction and that he learned shortly before her death that Blair, a one-time friend, had become one of her suppliers.

Two to three days before her death, Devin Spillar confronted Blair about selling drugs to his mother, he testified.

“I told him not to do it again,” Spillar testified.

The prosecution is expected to continue presenting evidence when the trial resumes on Wednesday.