Pair of overdoses in North Springfield leads to charges

A Springfield woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly sold heroin to two individuals who overdosed Wednesday evening in North Springfield.

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Pair of overdoses in North Springfield leads to charges Police say heroin bags in purse matched bags at scene Saturday, August 5, 2017 Eric Francis Vermont News Subscribe WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - A Springfield woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly sold heroin to two individuals who overdosed Wednesday evening in North Springfield. Jayde Smith, 23, pleaded innocent on Thursday afternoon to two felony counts charging that she possessed and sold heroin earlier in the day. Smith was then released from the courthouse in downtown White River Junction on a series of pre-trial conditions, including a court order that she start seeing a licensed drug and alcohol counselor while her criminal case is pending. Advertisement: Content continues below... Advertise with DailyUV! Springfield Police Officer Ryan Prince wrote in an affidavit filed with the court that the incident which led to Smith’s arrest began just after 7 p.m. Wednesday when Springfield’s emergency services were dispatched to the intersection of Route 106 and Mill Road in North Springfield for a report that two people had overdosed nearby. Officer Prince wrote that after the two subjects were revived with doses of naloxone he was able to speak with one of them, Noah Jakway, before an ambulance took Jakway to the hospital. “Noah advised that he had only used two bags (of heroin) and there were no stamps on the bags…(and) he had purchased the heroin roughly an hour before from Jayde Smith near Skitchewaug Trail,” Officer Prince wrote. Initial efforts to locate Smith were unsuccessful but shortly before 1 a.m. on Thursday Officer Anthony Leonard spotted her walking by the Springfield Library and called Officer Prince to Main Street to speak with her. Prince said that when he told Smith about Jakway’s allegations she “became very defensive” but allegedly admitted being a heroin user herself. Prince said when he asked Smith if he could look through her purse she initially refused and denied there was anything in it but at the same time, he noted, “Jayde became upset and began to cry and kept stating ‘I just want to go home’.” Moments later, Prince wrote, Smith allegedly admitted she did have something in her purse and then asked what the heroin bags involved in the overdose incident a few hours previous had looked like. “I informed her that the bags did not have (street brand) stamps. Jayde then stated ‘Mine don’t have stamps’,” Prince wrote, explaining that Smith then got a green wallet out of her purse and opened it to reveal several bags of what appeared to be heroin. “During this time Jayde was very emotional and would cry and stomp her feet,” Prince recalled, “Jayde kept asking me if I could just let her go (and) placed the green bag on the hood of my cruiser and stated ‘Please don’t charge me’.” Prince said that in addition to several empty bags, Smith had a “bundle” of 10 bags of heroin that “appeared to be the same bags from the overdose scene as well.” Prince wrote that after Smith was taken into custody and transported to the Springfield Police Department she was “cooperative and polite” during the booking process. Smith has been arrested earlier this year in Bellows Falls for misdemeanor heroin possession and was fined $150 for that when she pled guilty to the charge in June. She faces a maximum potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison if she were to be convicted of the charges now pending against her. Jayde Smith, 23, of Springfield talks to her public defender, Nikki Smith, during Thursday's arraignment Vermont News can be contacted at vermontnews802@gmail.com