Police caught up with an Erie man wanted on charges he supplied the deadly combination of heroin and fentanyl that claimed the life of local woman last month.

Derrick Hemphill Sr., age 27, was arraigned before District Judge Paul Urbaniak on nearly a dozen criminal charges including felony counts of drug delivery resulting in death, and manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to deliver fentanyl, and a mixture of heroin and fentanyl.

The investigation began on November 26, after Millcreek Police, responding to a call for a drug overdose, found 41-year-old Kelly Jares dead in an apartment on Baer Drive. They worked with Erie police to find her supplier.

Investigators used a number on the victim's cell phone and confidential informants who made a $40 buy from the supplier identified as "G" at 456 East 25th Street. Police later identified the seller as Hemphill.  

According to the criminal complaint, the crumpled pieces of paper the suspect sold, along with a knotted baggie tested positive as fentanyl and heroin with fentanyl.  The suspect told the buyers to take one to Jares and keep the other.

Hemphill was sent to the Erie County Prison with bond set at 250-thousand-dollars cash.