DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. – Kevin Caraballo pleaded guilty in Dauphin County Court this morning to Unlawful Delivery of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
Judge Deborah Curcillo sentenced him to 15 to 30 months in state prison, with early release possible based on the lack of violence in his criminal history. Caraballo was originally charged with both of those crimes and also drug delivery resulting in death, a first degree felony, for the events leading to the charges.
On June 14, 2015, Caraballo attended a party at a home in Steelton. At one point during the party, a family friend, and also one of the victim’s family members, saw Caraballo give the victim an envelope with several white pills in it for $40. The victim took several of the pills, later determined to be oxycodone, with alcohol.
Early in the morning the next day, June 15 the victim was found unresponsive and later declared dead by the Coroner’s Office. Following an autopsy and toxicology tests, the cause of death was determined to be “multiple drug toxicity” due to a significant amount of alcohol in her system together with the oxycodone, both alcohol and oxycodone are nervous system depressants.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Jack Canavan commented after the guilty plea that “The Commonwealth was forced to withdraw the drug delivery resulting in death charge because Pennsylvania requires that the drug provided be the sole cause of the death rather than a contributing factor. In this case, the fact that the victim consumed a significant amount of alcohol meant that no Commonwealth witness would have been able to testify that the oxycodone provided by Caraballo was the “sole” cause of the victim’s death.”
