A teen from Lower Makefield Township has been ordered into a juvenile placement facility for a young man’s fatal MDMA overdose.

Jacob Jasper, 18, was adjudicated delinquent of several offenses last month, including drug delivery resulting in death, involuntary manslaughter, criminal use of a communication facility and three counts of delivery of a controlled substance.

Because he was 17 at the time of the offenses, Pennsylvania law required Jasper be tried in juvenile court.

At an adversarial hearing Jan. 11, Judge Jeffrey L. Finley heard evidence Jasper invited the 18-year-old victim Kyle Valdez to his car April 14 in the parking lot of the Villa Rosa restaurant. Jasper provided the teen with the drugs, which he had purchased on the internet.

Just after 10 p.m. the same day, police found the young man dead in the passenger seat of Jasper’s car. A medical examiner later determined high levels of MDMA found in Valdez's blood caused his death.

“The public should know heroin and other opioids are not the only dangerous drugs on our streets. Stimulants like MDMA can also cause fatal overdoses, and the people pushing those drugs are going to be on the hook for it,” said Deputy District Attorney David A. Keightly. “Unfortunately, those realizations came too late for the young men in this case.”

Judge Finley on Feb. 19 ordered the teen placed in a juvenile facility for extensive treatment. He also must make restitution of $18,708.06 to the victim’s family.

Jasper’s treatment needs will be reevaluated regularly as he remains under juvenile supervision. The court system can maintain jurisdiction over juveniles who have been adjudicated delinquent until they reach 21.

Commonly referred to by its street name “Molly,” MDMA can be fatal, especially when ingested at higher doses. This case is believed to be the first successful prosecution in Pennsylvania for drug delivery resulting in death stemming from the transfer of MDMA.

According to written allegations filed in October, Jasper, then 17, used anonymizing software to purchase drugs on the internet, which he received by mail April 13. According to witnesses, Jasper then shared some of the MDMA with several others that evening.

On April 14, Jasper arrived late for his shift at Villa Rosa and told numerous employees he had used “Molly” the previous night and wanted to maintain his high, arrest papers say. Around 2:30 p.m., he repeatedly asked a female co-worker and Valdez, who worked at a nearby business and was visiting the female, to do MDMA in his car.

Valdez eventually went with Jasper and the two consumed the drugs. Around 5 p.m., the pair again went to Jasper’s car where they smoked using Jasper’s Juul. The written allegations say Jasper told police the victim seemed anxious and was “sniffing a lot.”

Then around 9:30 p.m., Jasper returned to his car at the end of his shift to find the unresponsive victim inside. He then called his female coworker and stated, amid profanity, that he wanted Valdez out of his car and did not want to call police.

Witnesses told officers that at 10 p.m. when someone finally called 911, Jasper seemed uninterested in helping the victim and was instead solely concerned with hiding his backpack from police because it contained drugs.

Police arrived at the scene within minutes of the 911 call, and determined Valdez was dead and had apparently been dead inside the car for some time.

The case was investigated by detectives from the Lower Makefield Township Police Department and prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney David A. Keightly.

Contact: David A. Keightly, 215.348.6342, dakeightly@buckscounty.org