Alleged drug dealer charged with causing death of teen girl

Alleged drug dealer charged with causing death of teen girl

An alleged drug dealer has been charged with selling heroin to a teenage girl that caused her to have a fatal overdose the day after Christmas, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office has announced. 

Willingsboro man Austin Cooper, 21, will be in New Jersey Superior Court in Mt. Holly on Wednesday on a state motion to detain him indefinitely pre-trial on charges of “strict liability of drug-induced death” for the overdose of a 15-year-old girl from Evesham Township.

Cooper allegedly delivered 10 bags of heroin to the girl prior to her death in December 2017. She “was discovered by a family member after a heroin overdose on December 26,” prosecutors said. “She was unresponsive but alive and was transported to Virtua Marlton Hospital before being flown to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She was pronounced dead at CHOP on December 28.”

Cooper had previously been charged with selling the victim the drugs that killed her, but got hit with the charge for causing her death on April 13, prosecutors announced this week, and was re-arrested at his home.

Cooper could not immediately be reached for comment.