A heroin dealer is headed to trial for delivering a batch of the drug that caused a fatal overdose this summer in Lititz.

Desmond Vargas sold 10 or 12 bags of heroin to a Lititz teenager who died on July 20. The victim, an 18-year-old male, died after using the heroin inside a Seglock Road home.

Vargas, 18, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor, and felony drug-dealing.
He is also charged in separate cases with additional counts of drug-dealing, burglary, and theft.

On Friday, he waived a preliminary hearing regarding the fatal overdose. By waiving the hearing, Vargas doesn’t admit guilt, but concedes there is evidence to support the charges.

Assistant District Attorney Maria Cusick is prosecuting the case.

Northern Lancaster County Regional police Detective Eric Zimmerman filed charges.

The Lancaster County coroner determined, after an autopsy, that the victim died of cardiac arrest due to the overdose.

Police interviewed two individuals who bought the heroin with the victim; the three individuals used the drugs together. The two who survived told police they bought the heroin from a man police identified as Vargas.

Vargas was already at Lancaster County Prison on the other set of charges. He previously waived preliminary hearings on those other charges.

He is presumed innocent.

MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us