A Rochester woman was charged with controlled substance homicide in Lewis County Superior Court on Thursday after law enforcement found alleged ties between her and an overdose-related death that occurred in Curtis in December.
The victim, 57-year-old Garland Garrett, was found dead at a residence in the 2300 block of Wildwood Road in Curtis on Dec. 6, 2022. Deputies with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office responded at about 8:10 p.m. and spoke to one of the two people who found the victim, according to information released by law enforcement. At the time, the subject told deputies she had administered the overdose-reversal drug Narcan and began CPR while the other subject, identified as Nichole L. Thompson, 33, of Rochester, called 911.
The Lewis County Coroner’s Office later confirmed fentanyl was the “one of the primary contributors” in Garrett’s death, according to a news release from the Centralia Police Department.
In January 2022, the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) contacted the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office to work collaboratively on the investigation into Garrett’s death, according to the Centralia Police Department.
While working on an unrelated case on March 9, detectives from the Centralia Police Department, along with members of the Washington State Department of Corrections and JNET, arrested a man in Rochester and ran into Thompson, who a JNET detective reportedly “recognized as a person who has ties to the local illegal drug community and who was at the residence in Curtis when the overdose death occurred in December of 2022,” according to the Centralia Police Department.
When subsequently questioned by a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputy in May, Thompson allegedly admitted to providing him fentanyl and claimed she and Garrett smoked it together, according to court documents. She allegedly said she was with Garrett for most of the day but left for about an hour and returned to find Garrett had overdosed.
“Thompson said she believed Garrett had obtained additional fentanyl from her purse while she was gone and had overdosed on that,” according to court documents.
She allegedly said she brought approximately .5 grams with her that day.
Thompson was booked into the Lewis County Jail at 11:40 a.m. on May 10 and has since been charged with one count each of controlled substance homicide and violation of the uniform controlled substances act.
Controlled substances homicide is a class B felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Bail was set at $100,000 on Thursday.
Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, May 18.
