## Facts

- Melissa Wandell and Zach Savage planned that Savage would drive Wandell to Harrisburg to buy heroin from Wandell’s dealer (“Ro-Ro”).
- As part of their arrangement, Savage would pay for the drugs, and Wandell and Savage would share them; Wandell was also to give Savage two of her prescribed medications.
- When Wandell called Ro-Ro, Jerrod Aaron Scott answered and told her he could obtain heroin if she picked him up.
- Savage and Wandell picked up Scott, who rode in the back seat and directed Savage to a convenience store.
- At the convenience store, Scott took Savage’s money, met an unidentified person, obtained fentanyl, and handed the fentanyl to Wandell.
- Scott then directed Savage to another location, where Scott purchased cocaine at Wandell’s request.
- Savage drove to additional locations so Scott could fill a prescription and then trade prescribed drugs for heroin.
- During the evening, Savage and Wandell used cocaine while waiting for Scott; later, Scott and Wandell used cocaine while Savage was driving.
- The trio went to a park to use the drugs they had acquired.
- After Scott and Wandell ingested fentanyl, Scott overdosed, and Savage administered Narcan to revive him.
- After Scott recovered, Savage ingested two bags of fentanyl, lost consciousness, and Scott and Wandell moved him into the back seat and propped him up.
- Wandell drove to her apartment; Scott and Wandell left Savage unconscious in the car while they went inside and took more drugs.
- Wandell checked on Savage during the night; he remained unresponsive.
- The next morning, Savage was dead. The cause of death was determined to be mixed substance toxicity.
- Scott was convicted of, among other offenses, drug delivery resulting in death (18 Pa.C.S. § 2506) and possession with intent to deliver (35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(30)).

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to prove “delivery” for drug delivery resulting in death and PWID where Scott obtained fentanyl using Savage’s money and transferred it to Wandell, and Scott argued the group acted pursuant to a mutual plan to acquire and share drugs rather than engage in a delivery.
2. Whether the evidence was sufficient to prove the “resulting in death” element of DDRD where the medical cause of death was mixed substance toxicity and the fentanyl Scott helped obtain was among the substances used.

## Decision

- The Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the judgment of sentence.
- The court held the evidence was sufficient for DDRD because Scott’s conduct constituted a “delivery” of fentanyl within the meaning of Pennsylvania law, even though the participants intended to share the drugs.
- The court held the evidence permitted a finding that the fentanyl delivered was a direct and substantial factor in Savage’s death despite mixed substance toxicity.
- The court upheld PWID on the same core proof that Scott possessed the drugs and participated in their transfer to another person.

## Legal Principles

- “Delivery” of a controlled substance includes an actual, constructive, or attempted transfer from one person to another, whether or not there is an agency relationship.
- A transfer can qualify as a “delivery” even when the parties are fellow users and the transfer occurs in a shared-use setting; the statute is not limited to commercial, profit-driven dealing.
- A person who acts as an intermediary—taking money, obtaining drugs from a supplier, and passing the drugs to another—may be found to have delivered the drugs.
- For DDRD, the Commonwealth must prove the defendant intentionally delivered the controlled substance and that use of that substance resulted in death; Pennsylvania applies a substantial-factor causation standard.
- Death attributed to mixed substance toxicity does not bar DDRD liability if the delivered drug is shown to be a direct and substantial factor in the death.

## Conclusion

The Superior Court affirmed Scott’s convictions because the record supported findings that Scott obtained fentanyl with Savage’s money and transferred it to Wandell, which constituted a delivery even in a joint plan to buy and share drugs, and that the fentanyl was a substantial factor in Savage’s fatal mixed-substance overdose.


Commonwealth v. Scott, 325 A.3d 844 (2024)