FARMINGTON — A Jay man was sentenced Tuesday to serve 10 months of a four-year jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic in heroin, according to Franklin County court documents.

Jeremiah Dean Paulton, 35, formerly of Wilton, was arrested Aug. 31, 2017, on a felony conspiracy charge and indicted in November after police conducted an investigation after a Farmington woman overdosed twice on heroin in a two-day period. 

Farmington police were called July 12, 2017, to a residence on Davis Road, where they found a 29-year-old woman who was unresponsive and an apparent overdose. Police used Narcan to revive her, according to Farmington Officer Darin Gilbert.

Gilbert later interviewed the woman at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington. He then wrote that the woman “admitted that she had overdosed on what she believed was heroin.”

On July 14, police were again called to the woman’s residence for a suspected overdose. The woman was not breathing and had no pulse, according to police.

Police again revived her with Narcan. She told them she had used heroin again and removed a stocking from a night stand. The stocking contained needles, a cooking spoon, several pieces of cotton balls and cellophane packages with residue, according to a police affidavit filed with the court.

The woman was taken to the hospital. During a search of the home, drug paraphernalia and her cellphone were confiscated. Police received a data search warrant for the phone. The search revealed a phone number for “Jerimiah Dean” and Facebook messages about heroin between “Jerimiah Dean” and the 29-year-old woman.

Gilbert entered the phone number into Facebook in a search and the number was linked to “Jerimiah Dean,” which Gilbert showed to Hastings who recognized him as Jeremiah Paulton, according to the affidavit.

After further investigation, Gilbert determined that the woman and Paulton had daily communication, and the language is consistent with street terminology for heroin.

Following Paulton’s release from prison, he will be on probation for two years. He is scheduled to begin his sentence June 22.

Paulton has prior conviction on manslaughter charge in 2000. He was 16 when he was charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of Blaine Jasper in Farmington. He served 19 months in juvenile detention before he was charged as an adult at age 17 and pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in 2000.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with all but seven years suspended followed by six years of probation. A Franklin County judge also found Paulton guilty in 2009 of terrorizing for threatening to kill the mother of his child in 2008 and violating his probation in the manslaughter case. He was sentenced to serve six more years of the remaining 12-year sentence in the manslaughter conviction.

While Paulton is on probation in the heroin case, he is required to complete a evaluation and counseling as an outpatient for substance abuse as directed by his probation officer. He also must submit to random search and testing for drugs, according to court documents.

The woman who overdosed, Jillian Huddleston, now 30, was arrested July 15, 2017, on charges of possession of scheduled drugs, according to Sun Journal reports. She pleaded guilty and entered into an agreement Nov. 20, 2017, that delays sentencing for a year. 

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

Jeremiah Paulton (Franklin County Detention Center)