Pelton
GOSHEN – A Port Jervis man will spend 1 ½ to four years in state prison on his guilty plea to felony criminal injection of a narcotic drug.
Kevin Pelton, 58, was sentenced in Orange County Court in connection with his having injected a man with heroin while he was at Pelton’s Port Jervis residence on November 3, 2015.
Port Jervis officers and first responders were called to Pelton’s residence in response to a 911 call from a woman there who said that an unconscious man needed medical assistance. Police and medical personnel attempted to render aid to the man, who later died.
An investigation by city police revealed that Pelton had injected him with heroin prior to the man becoming unconscious.
District Attorney David Hoovler has now created a new protocol for police agencies when dealing with drug overdoses.
“On every overdose death there is specific evidentiary protocol that has to be followed and an assistant district attorney is assigned to every one of those overdose cases to see if there is any evidence that basically can lead us to the person that sold the heroin or someone else who did the injection that we may prosecute those individuals,” Hoovler said.
The heroin epidemic is at an all-time high and law enforcement is doing everything it can to deal with it.
