This is a tale of two drug cases.
Both ended in tragedy, fatal overdoses that took two young lives.
Both resulted in charges being filed against the person who supplied the drugs.
One case was brought by the U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia. The other just played out in Delaware County Court.
In 2014, Emma Semler scored some heroin in Philly and shared it with a friend, Jenny Werstler, in the bathroom of a KFC. Werstler quickly overdosed. Semler, along with her sister, panicked. They quickly cleaned up and left Werstler, who had struggled with addiction and was just out or rehab, to die on the bathroom floor. She died on her 20th birthday.
Likewise, Andy Bruhn had been in the throes of his own addiction issues.
The 28-year-old Chester man had injured his back at work. He got hooked on pain pills, which eventually led him to heroin.
That led him to Raheem Harper. The Colwyn man - who is already serving time for heroin distribution - this week was sentenced for supplying a fatal dose of fentanyl to Bruhn.
Both Semler and Harper appeared contrite, even distraught at the consequences of their actions.
Semler was in tears as she openly wonder why she is alive and Werstler is not.
She has gone through rehab, gotten herself clean, and started a new life working in the rehab field.
"I have extreme remorse," she told a federal judge. "If I could go back and change anything, I would."
Likewise, Harper told a Delaware County judge, "I don't really know where I went wrong. I take full responsibility. It was a selfish decision. I just made the wrong decision. I didn't think about it, about doing this harm to Mr. Bruhn's family, to my family. I was just thinking about myself. I'm sorry for that."
Both fell under a new push by prosecutors seeking to stem the wave of heroin abuse washing over the region by using a new charge, "drug delivery resulting in death."
It calls for tougher sentencings for those who not only sell drugs that result in fatal overdoses, but those who supply them as well.
In Semler's case, she supplied the drugs that killed her friend Werstler; Harper sold the deadly concoction to Bruhn.
In terms of the court, Semler decided to take her chances and go to trial. She was convicted and sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Harper entered into a plea deal and was sentenced to 40 to 80 months in prison.
Ever wonder why so many people enter plea deals?
Just ask Emma Semler and Raheem Harper.
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