Unity man pleads guilty in 2017 fatal drug overdose

A Unity man pleaded guilty Monday to selling a fatal dose of drugs that killed a 24-year-old woman in 2017.

David L. Jellison, 28, of the village of Hostetter, entered a general plea to drug delivery resulting in death. He faces a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison during a hearing that will be scheduled in a few months.

Prosecutors withdrew two drug possession counts. There is no plea agreement, according to attorneys.

State police said they were called to an apartment on Murray Avenue in Unity at 1 a.m. Sept. 3, 2017. Holly Hudson was taken to Excela Health Latrobe Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Troopers learned that Hudson had purchased heroin from Jellison a few hours earlier, according to court papers.

The pair communicated by text message prior to the exchange, police said. Stamp bags of heroin seized from Jellison that matched what were found in Hudson’s apartment contained a mixture of heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil, police said.

Fentanyl and carfentanil are synthetic pain killers much more powerful than heroin.

Judge Timothy Krieger did not allow family members of Jellison and Hudson into the courtroom for Monday’s brief hearing, citing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Assistant District Attorney Becky Calisti and defense attorney James Crosby did not object when asked by Krieger. Jellison, who appeared by video conference from the Westmoreland County Prison, also consented when asked by the judge.

“I’m not going to be permitting them inside given the health situation,” Krieger said.

Family members of both sides will be allowed in the courtroom at the time of sentencing, he said.

Jellison is awaiting court action in a separate case in which police said he crashed near Westmoreland Mall in Hempfield on June 24, 2019 and fled on foot. Crosby said there is a tentative plea agreement in that case. Jellison is charged with flight to avoid apprehension, driving under the influence and related offenses.