Bethel Park man pleads guilty to drug delivery death
A drug dealer accused of selling fentanyl-laced heroin to a Canonsburg man who died from an overdose inside a North Strabane Township hotel last year pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to prison.
Mark Anton, 64, of Bethel Park, pleaded guilty in Washington County Court to one charge of drug delivery resulting in death for the fatal overdose of Justin Peterson in September 2020.
Judge Gary Gilman sentenced Anton to serve 6 ½ to 13 years in a state prison and ordered him to pay $10,000 restitution to Peterson’s family for funeral expenses.
North Strabane police said Anton sold heroin to Peterson and another person at a grocery store parking lot in Canonsburg. Peterson later died when he used the deadly batch of drugs in a Meadow Lands area hotel on Sept. 27, 2020. Police said an autopsy showed that he died of a combined toxicity of fentanyl and cocaine.
Bethel Park police arrested Anton two weeks later on charges that he possessed multiple bricks of heroin and stamp bags that matched what was found in Peterson’s hotel room.
Charges of drug delivery, drug possession and criminal use of a cellphone in Washington County were dropped in exchange for the plea agreement. However, Anton is still facing firearms and drug charges in Allegheny County from his arrest by Bethel Park police, court records indicate.