×

Two charged in Centre County drug death

District attorney: Fatal fentanyl obtained in Lock Haven

Sabine Graham

BELLEFONTE — Maria Gilligan and Sabine Graham face first-degree felony charges in the death of Corinne Pena in February 2015 from opioid drugs, the Centre County district attorney reported.

The drugs were obtained in Lock Haven, according to District Attorney Stacey Parks Miller.

The two women were charged Tuesday with Drug Delivery Resulting in Death, along with a host of serious companion charges, as recommended by the First Centre County Investigating Grand Jury.

According to court documents:

In the bitterly cold, early morning hours of Feb. 13, 2015, Corinne Pena’s partially nude, frozen body was discovered abandoned along a rural stretch of Plainfield Road in Ferguson Township. The body, in sweatpants and socks, was wrapped in a red bedsheet. Responding law enforcement officers could find no identification on the body. Ferguson Township detectives were ultimately able to identify her by utilizing photographs of her tattoos.

They discovered she had overdosed on fentanyl while staying as a guest in the State College home of Robert Moir. Moir was later prosecuted and convicted of the misdemeanor offense of Abuse of a Corpse for transporting and discarding Pena’s body when he discovered her deceased in his bathroom.

Several days after the body was found, Gilligan claimed to police that she was with Pena in the day leading up to her death. She said she and the victim knew each other from past stints in rehab. While visiting State College, Pena reached out to Gilligan, asking for help in purchasing heroin to alleviate Pena’s withdrawal symptoms. On the day of Pena’s death, Gilligan arranged for both of them to meet Graham, whom Gilligan previously knew to be a local heroin distributor. Graham transported both Gilligan and Pena from State College to Lock Haven, where she obtained 22 bags of purported heroin–she delivered 14 bags directly to Pena and later sold the other eight bags to people in Centre County upon their return.

Later that evening, in the bathroom of Moir’s home, Pena ingested eight doses of what she believed to be heroin. Toxicology results later revealed she had unknowingly consumed fatally high dose of fentanyl, a much more potent and dangerous synthetic opioid than heroin, typically used by drug dealers to stretch use of their product while increasing their profits at the same time.

In the course of its investigation, the Grand Jury also received testimony from four separate individuals who all admitted Graham had previously sold them heroin on multiple occasions. One witness testified that within a single month alone, Graham embarked on 30 “drug runs” that pumped heroin from Williamsport into Centre County. Another witness informed the Grand Jury that Graham confessed her responsibility for two separate drug overdoses — both Pena’s and that of another female in the State College Ross’ clothing store bathroom.

Gilligan is charged as an accomplice to Drug Delivery Resulting in Death, a felony of the first degree carrying a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years’ incarceration, and two other felonies: Possession With the Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance, and Delivery of a Controlled Substance.

Graham is charged with Drug Delivery Resulting in Death, a felony of the first degree; two other felonies: Possession With Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance, and Delivery of a Controlled Substance; and four separate counts each for Possession With Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance and Delivery of a Controlled Substance for each of the four individuals who testified before the Grand Jury.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $3.69/week.

Subscribe Today