The second of three people charged in the 2015 drug delivery death of a 25-year-old Bradford man was arraigned Wednesday.
James Arthur Luper, 44, of Erie, was arraigned Wednesday afternoon before District Judge Dominic Cercone and committed to McKean County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, court records indicate.
Luper, along with Rachel Lynn Reid, 28, of Bradford, and Larry W. Shroyer, 46, of Derrick City, has been charged in the Nov. 13, 2015, death of Bradford man George Duke Jr.
Reid was jailed Monday, also in lieu of $100,000 bail, while Shroyer remained at large as of press time Wednesday.
Luper was already incarcerated at the time the new charges were filed, as he was sentenced in August 2016 to a state prison term of 42 months to seven years for three prior drug-related cases: two cases for delivering controlled substances including cocaine, marijuana and a designer drug, and the third case for driving under the influence of a controlled substance.
A criminal complaint filed against Reid indicated that Duke had butyryl fentanyl and a small amount of morphine in his blood at the time of his death; also, blue wrappers found on his nightstand allegedly contained butyryl fentanyl and heroin — as well as DNA profiles from Duke and Shroyer.
The wrapper led to the High Street apartment of Luper and Reid, who were allegedly selling a strong mix of heroin and butyryl fentanyl in the blue bags to customers including Shroyer, who witnesses said purchased controlled substances from the apartment about every day, according to court records.
Luper and Shroyer had phone and in-person contact with each other hundreds of times a month, court records indicated.
All three are charged with aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, both first-degree felonies; two counts each of possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance and delivery of a designer drug and one count of conspiracy to deliver a designer drug, all felonies; involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy to commit involuntary manslaughter, both first-degree misdemeanors; recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor; and possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor, court records stated.
Preliminary hearings for Reid and Luper are scheduled for Nov. 30.
Luper has a deeper history of drug cases in McKean County.
Luper was sentenced Oct. 7, 2008, to 2 ½ to seven years in prison for allegations that he sold crack cocaine on three separate occasions between 2006 and 2007, and he drove two McKean County Jail inmates to Buffalo, N.Y., after the pair walked away from a work detail at the county fairgrounds on June 30, 2007. In addition to those four cases, the 2008 sentence also include a charge of possession of a controlled substance in a fifth case, court records stated.
