Man accused of homicide in overdose death

An Oak Harbor man is accused of providing a pill containing the drug fentanyl to a man who overdosed and died June 3, according to court documents.

Prosecutors charged Dylan W. Vanosdol, 25, in Island County Superior Court Aug. 14 with controlled substances homicide.

In convicted, he could face up to five years and eight months in prison under the standard sentencing range.

Vanosdol’s bail was set at $20,000 on Aug. 12.

On June 2, Oak Harbor police responded to a report that a man, Jose Colon, 40, was found dead at the Acorn Motor Inn from an apparent overdose. Officers administered CPR and gave him two doses of Naxoxone, but they were unable to revive him.

A woman who was staying with Colon told police that he had snorted half a pill of fentanyl. The drug is a synthetic opioid pain reliever that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The Island County coroner found that Colon’s cause of death was fentanyl toxicity, an officer’s report states.

An investigator analyzed Colon’s phone with the help of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and found a message about purchasing pills from Vanosdol, according to the officer’s report on the investigation.

Later, Vanosdol allegedly told police that he was a drug addict and is a “middleman” who supplies illegally obtained pills to friends and associates, the report states.

Vanosdol allegedly admitted that he traded half a pill with Colon for some heroin; the two men crushed the pill and each snorted half of it, the report states.

Vanosdol allegedly admitted that the pill was designed to look like the drug percocet but that he knew it was really a different drug, the officer wrote.

Vanosdol then left the motel and received a call in the middle of the night informing him that Colon had died.