'I want to get a girl addicted to heroin'

MOUNT HOLLY - A 21-year-old man who allegedly delivered 10 bags of heroin to the home of a Marlton teenager will stay behind bars while he awaits trial on charges related to her overdose death, a judge ruled Wednesday.

If convicted, Austin F. Cooper faces 10 to 20 years in prison for the death of Madison McDonald, a 15-year-old from Marlton whose father found her facedown in her bed and without a pulse the morning after Christmas last year. 

Investigators obtained a search warrant and found text messages, internet searches and Facebook messages on Cooper's cellphone and computer, Burlington County Assistant Prosecutor Jeremy Lackey said at a pretrial detention hearing.   

In one search, on Oct. 30, the Willingboro man typed "I want to get a girl addicted to heroin," and "how to cut fentanyl with heroin," according to the prosecutor.  

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Lackey said the lanky, blond-haired man hung out at malls and preyed "on children to sell his poison."

After Madison's death, Lackey said, Cooper texted others that he "caught a body" and needed to "re-up" so he could pay a lawyer. He also avoided his Buckeye Lane home, in case police tried to pick him up, the prosecutor said.

"He's a thug," Lackey argued. "He was bragging about that." 

Cooper is the sixth person charged in Burlington County with strict liability in homicide cases against people who make, sell or distribute controlled substances since Scott Coffina took over the prosecutor's office in March 2017. 

Citing the seriousness of the charges, Superior Court Judge Thomas P. Kelly turned down a request from Cooper's attorney to allow the defendant to return home to his father's custody while awaiting trial.

Defense attorney Jared Dorfman argued Cooper had no prior convictions and lived at home with his father, aunt and grandmother. He said the young man recently was hired full-time at Burlington Coat Factory in Florence, and would be driven back and forth to work by his father, if released.

Dorfman also noted investigators did not search Madison's Snapchat account, which he said could have been used to purchase drugs from someone else. 

After the hearing, Steve McDonald of Marlton said his family is devastated by the loss of their "sweet little girl," a strict vegan who refused to eat dairy or other animal products during her last three years of life.

A bright 10th-grader who grew up attending mostly Catholic schools, Madison helped her parents around the house and enjoyed shopping at malls with her friends, he said. Her family had no idea she was using drugs, McDonald said.     

"His parents will be able to see him, and he'll get out," McDonald added. "I will never see her again." 

Devon McDonald, Madison's older sister, said she hopes Cooper receives the maximum sentence, "so it doesn't happen to somebody else." 

"It's just awful," Steve McDonald said as he wrapped his arm around his daughter, tears dripping down their cheeks. "She'll never be a part of us again." 

More:Alleged dope dealer responsible for teen girl's fatal OD, prosecutor says

Coffina sat beside the McDonalds during the hearing, but declined to comment. In January, after the conviction of a Camden drug dealer in another case, the prosecutor vowed to pursue more dealers whose customers die after using their product.

"With over 130 overdose deaths in our county in 2017," Coffina said in a statement then, "law enforcement will be putting an ever greater emphasis on investigating fatal overdoses as potential crime scenes and we will pursue prosecutions under the strict liability, drug-induced-death homicide statute whenever the evidence supports it." 

Roseanne Scotti, state director of New Jersey Drug Police Alliance, said her organization opposes use of the 1987 state law, calling it "ineffective" at reducing harm and costly to enforce. She said the law is usually used to sweep up street-level dealers, rather than major distributors.

"These laws are a very blunt instrument," Scotti maintained. 

Kim Mulford: @CP_KimMulford; (856) 486-2448; kmulford@gannettnj.com

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