LANCASTER COUNTY — A 22-year-old Columbia man will serve up to 16 years in prison for the 2017 sale of fentanyl that killed an Elizabethtown man, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office.
Tyler S. Bobola pleaded guilty in April to a felony charge of drug delivery resulting in death and a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child.
According to the district attorney, Bobola sold pure fentanyl to a 22-year-old victim on Aug. 31, 2017. The victim overdosed shortly afterward at his North Cherry Alley home in Elizabethtown.
When police searched Bobola’s home on Sept. 6 in the course of their investigation of the overdose death, they found heroin and fentanyl residue near Bobola’s infant child.
At his sentencing hearing in Lancaster County Court, Judge Merrill Spahn Jr. sentenced Bobola to 6 years and 8 months to 16 years in prison.
Assistant District Attorney Barry Goldman said at the hearing there are differences between individuals who sell drugs solely to support their own drug habits and legitimate drug dealers.
Bobola’s operation was profitable and had been going on for years, according to Goldman.
About 1,000 bags of heroin/fentanyl and eight cellphones, believed to be used in the drug dealing operation, were found in the search of Bobola’s home, according to Goldman.
