Four days after a 24-year-old died of an overdose at his family’s Center Grove area home, police have arrested the man they suspect sold him the drugs that killed him.
Dawayne M. Dillard, 26, of Indianapolis, was arrested on a charge of dealing a narcotic drug and neglect of a dependent.
He could face additional charges, which could include a new count added to the criminal code this year that increases the penalties for someone who deals drugs that result in death, Sheriff Doug Cox said. The prosecutor will decide what, if any, charges to file.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into Dillard last week, the day they were called to an overdose at a home on Driftwood Lane in the Brentwood neighborhood.
Despite emergency workers’ attempts to save him, including a dose of Narcan meant to reverse overdoses, 24-year-old Nicholas Gemlich died, according to the sheriff’s office report.
Gemlich’s mother told police her son had lost part of his leg in a motorcycle accident more than a year ago and had been on pain medication since. When he ran out of pain medication, he would use heroin, she told investigators.
But he told her he had stopped using when he had recently filled his pain medication, the report said. She had seen him earlier in the day, and then found him on the floor of his room. Her son had told her he would snort heroin up his nose because he didn’t think he could overdose that way, the report said.
Investigators began looking into who Gemlich had been in touch with before his death, and came across Dillard.
The sheriff’s office began an investigation, and found that Dillard was selling heroin, including some that was laced with fentanyl, and suspect he had sold the drug to Gemlich the day he overdosed, the report said.
Dillard was arrested after offering to sell heroin that he promised was high quality and pure for $300 outside a Greenwood business. When he was arrested, Dillard had a 2-year-old child in the vehicle, the report said.
Deputies found more than 2 grams of heroin inside Dillard’s vehicle.
“This was good police work,” Cox said.
“Whenever we can track down drug dealers, we will do that.”
This is at least the second case where the sheriff’s office has tracked down someone who sold drugs after an overdose, he said.
Cox hopes cases such as these will both discourage people from using drugs and from selling drugs, so that no more parents have to call for help when their child is overdosing, he said.
“I just prefer 24-year-olds not to die on us,” Cox said.
Dillard, 2226 Martha St., was arrested and taken to the Johnson County jail, where he was held on $34,400 bond.
