MORRISDALE – A local man was charged Wednesday in connection with the overdose death of a teenage friend and co-worker.
Dennis Demoss, 36, of Munson was charged by Clearfield state police with felony drug delivery resulting in death, child endangerment and criminal use of communication facility, as well as misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter, corruption of minors and reckless endangerment.
Because Demoss is considered a “severe flight risk,” he’s been placed in Clearfield County Jail and denied bail. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for May 29 before Magisterial District Judge Jerome Nevling.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, investigators were contacted by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Aug. 1, 2022 concerning a 14-year-old male patient who wasn’t expected to survive a suspected drug overdose.
The overdose had reportedly occurred the evening of July 28, 2022 at a residence in the 2400-block of Hardscrabble Road in Morrisdale.
The victim was pronounced dead Aug. 3, 2022.
The victim’s final toxicology screening showed positive for fentanyl, norfentanyl and xylazine, which, according to state police, is consistent with “home-manufactured” heroin.
An autopsy was completed on Aug. 5, 2022, and the victim’s death was ruled accidental due to fentanyl toxicity.
State police spoke with the woman who called for help. She said a relative alerted her to an emergency in the basement of the residence.
When she got downstairs, the victim was unconscious on the bed but still breathing and making “weird noises.” She remained with him until emergency personnel were on-scene.
State police also spoke with Demoss. He said the victim had been complaining of a headache and he gave him ibuprofen before he (the victim) went downstairs to take a nap.
He claimed the victim was sleeping and not making any “weird noises.”
Demoss allegedly admitted to investigators that he was a recovering heroin addict, and it had been about a week since he last used the “mixed [expletive] that was going around.”
On Aug. 3, 2022, state police spoke with a witness who had contact with Demoss by phone concerning the incident. He said Demoss admitted to having let the victim use his pipe, which Demoss claimed only contained THC.
On Aug. 9, 2022, Demoss arrived at the Clearfield barracks for processing in an unrelated case. His cellular phone was seized due to “time-sensitive” evicence it could contain and a search warrant was subseqeuntly obtained for its contents.
On Nov. 1, 2022, state police spoke with a second witness concerning her conversation with Demoss about the events leading up to the victim’s overdose.
She said she’d traveled to New York with Demoss for marijuna within a few days of the incident.
She said Demoss claimed they “hit” a piece of foil with “dab” (cannabis extract, which typically has higher THC levels) that night.
Afterwards, the witness indicated to state police that “you don’t do ‘dab’ off tin foil.”
In January of 2024, the case was reassigned for purposes of further investigation, and it was discovered there had been no documentation of Demoss’ relocation to Kentucky within weeks of the victim’s overdose death.
On April 29, state police spoke with Demoss after he was taken into custody by the patrol unit on unrelated criminal charges.
When questioned, Demoss deniod using any drugs with the victim. He went on to claim that he doesn’t like marijuana and only uses “dab” pens.”
However, it’d been previously reported to state police that Demoss was observed smoking an unknown susbstance off tin foil on the night of the victim’s overdose.
When confronted about this, Demoss claimed he’d dropped his “dab” pen on the ground. Because this caused it to break, he had to put the “dab” on a piece of tin foil.
When asked about his drug usage, he denied using anything other than “dab” and stated he didn’t even use regular marijuana.
Demoss claimed he’d been “clean” for approximately 12 days at the time—a point he repeatedly made to invesigators.
He also claimed the victim was a “heavy” marijuana user until state police showed him a copy of the victim’s toxicology report, which indicated there was fentanyl, not marijuana, in his system.
Demoss then “instantly” attempted to deflect blame, saying someone else could have provided the victim with fentanyl but did confirm only he was in the basement with the victim.
At one point during the interview, Demoss commented: “I’ve been [expletive] thinking this whole time I did something [expletive] wrong.
“I’ve been crushing myself—every day—over this [expletive].”
Later on he commented that, “I still can’t even look in the mirror without feeling disgusted.”
The interview was ultimately terminated by Demoss.
A Cellebrite Extraction Report for Demoss’ phone revealed text messages from July 25-26, 2022 about drug purchases consistent with what investigators believe caused the victim’s death.
On May 9, state police interviewed a juvenile witness who on July 28, 2022 observed Demoss and the victim asleep in Demoss’ room and believed something wasn’t right with the victim. He tried to tell Demoss, but he just “brushed it off.”
The juvenile said Demoss was using fentanyl and other drugs at the time and after the victim’s death, he was forced to move to Kentucky within a matter of weeks as an attempt to avoid arrest.