Fayette man charged in East Huntingdon drug overdose death

Paul Peirce | Tuesday, December 8, 2020 9:06 a.m.

Tribune-Review

A 31-year-old Everson man is in Westmoreland County Prison on charges of providing a fatal dose of fentanyl to an East Huntingdon man last summer, according to state police.

Stephen T. Shively was jailed after failing to post $100,000 bond Friday on charges of drug delivery resulting in death and manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance in connection with the Aug. 2 death of Jason M. Schwartz, 30.

Trooper James McKenzie also separately charged Shively with manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance and illegal possession of a controlled substance after troopers served a search warrant at his Fayette County home on Painter Street two days after Schwartz’s death. McKenzie said troopers seized a makeup bag hidden inside a heating vent in his second-floor bedroom that contained contraband and cash during the search.

According to court documents, the bag contained strips of opioids that Shively did not have a prescription to possess, numerous Klonopin pills, an anxiety medication, and a bag containing methamphetamine powder. Police also confiscated $698 from a money clip inside the bag, a digital scale, six credit cards and Shively’s driver’s license, McKenzie said.

“Shively acknowledged ownership of the drugs inside the Estee Lauder bag. He also stated that he usually trades these drugs for other drugs, but also sells drugs,” McKenzie wrote in court documents.

McKenzie said in court documents that during questioning Shively admitting trading six stamp bags of heroin, stamped Gucci, to Schwartz in exchange for 20 Klonopin pills on July 31.

Police reports said troopers discovered two empty stamp bags and four full bags of suspected heroin marked Gucci when they discovered Schwartz’s body at his residence on the 1500 block of Connellsville-Mt. Pleasant Road.

Schwartz was a 2008 graduate of Southmoreland High School and earned a bachelor of science degree in technology education at California University in 2012, according to his obituary.

Shively’s preliminary hearing is scheduled Dec. 16.

In 2009, Shively pleaded no contest to a charge of possession of a controlled substance filed by state police after a drug investigation in the Mt. Pleasant area. He was sentenced to serve one year probation in that case, according to court dockets.