Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — Minutes after leaving the Luzerne County courtroom of President Judge Michael T. Vough on June 13, Nazareth Shoffner called his lengthy prison sentence “a joke.”
Shoffner, 35, formerly of Holland Street, Wilkes-Barre, filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Superior Court over his sentence of 14 to 28 years in state prison for drug delivery resulting in death and a separate charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
Shoffner was charged following an investigation by detectives with the district attorney’s office of the overdose death of Haylee Oeller, 21, of Atlantic Avenue, Edwardsville, who died in Wilkes-Barre General Hospital on Feb. 9, 2023.
Detectives learned during the investigation Shoffner delivered what Oeller and a friend believed to be was a Percocet pill on Feb. 8, 2023, according to court records.
Oeller and her friend cut the pill in half they took while drinking wine.
The friend soon began to itch over her body and vomited at least 10 times after taking the half pill, court records say.
Oeller became unresponsive and was transported to the hospital, where she died.
Court records list Oeller’s cause of death as fentanyl toxicity.
During the investigation of Oeller’s death, Shoffner changed his cellular phone number.
A search warrant was served at Shoffner’s residence when he lived on Martin Street, Hanover Township, where detectives seized cellular phones, Percocet pills, methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl, court records say.
Shoffner filed the appeal with the Superior Court after Vough denied to modify his sentence.