PUTNAM COUNTY, W.Va. — A Putnam County woman is charged with 1st degree murder for allegedly giving a Hurricane man the heroin that killed him in March.
Deputies with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department arrested Joney Farley, 35, of Hurricane on Thursday.
The victim, Jeffrey Burdette, also of Hurricane, died on March 19, 2017 at CAMC Teays Valley after initially being taken there days earlier while suffering an overdose, according to a criminal complaint filed in Putnam County Magistrate Court.
When detectives interviewed Farley this past Wednesday, she allegedly told them Jeffrey had driven her and two other people to Huntington to buy heroin on March 15. The group returned to Hurricane where, according to Farley, she mixed the heroin with water.
The criminal complaint included this description of what happened next:
“Farley stated that she injected Jeffrey with the heroin. After several minutes, Jeffrey asked for another “shot” of heroin. Farley stated that she again mixed heroin with water, drew it into a needle and again injected Jeffrey with the heroin. Farley stated that after a couple of minutes, Jeffrey lost consciousness and stopped breathing.”
“After several more minutes,” Farley told detectives she drove Burdette to CAMC Teays Valley.
“Most of the time, when you get these type of cases, you cannot get somebody to confess that they actually did inject that person,” said Putnam County Sheriff Steve Deweese. “Most of the time they might say they’ve mixed it or what have you.”
A toxicology test determined Burdette had opiates in his system at the time of his death. Heroin is an opiate.
Both Farley and Burdette had grown up together in Hurricane, according to Deweese who was initially contacted by Burdette’s mother. Burdette borrowed his mother’s car for the trip to Huntington.
“Unfortunately, we have a family member that’s deceased and no longer with us due to the drug epidemic,” Deweese said.