Lansdale Man Pleads Guilty in Fatal Drug Overdose of 23-Year-old Wilkens Guerrier

Keith Heffintrayer | North Penn Now•

A Lansdale man is headed to state prison after pleading guilty to providing the drugs used in the fatal overdose of 23-year-old Wilken Guerrier in August 2022.

Gabriel Nolan, 21, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to drug delivery resulting in death — a first-degree felony. Court records show the remaining charges of possession with intent to distribute, criminal use of a communication facility, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia were dropped in exchange for Nolan’s plea.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Rogers sentenced Nolan to 6 to 12 years in state prison, with the sentence beginning on Nov. 7.

Police allege Guerrier contacted Nolan via the Telegram app on Aug. 20, 2022, to purchase two Percocet pills. Over the course of two days, Guerrier and Nolan arranged the exchange, with Nolan emphasizing that the pills were real and that he doesn’t "play with selling that fake s—t,” according to charging documents.

Guerrier picked up the pills from Nolan during the afternoon of Aug. 22, 2022, and fatally overdosed at his home on Bergey Road later that evening, police said. An autopsy was conducted two days later by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, which ruled Guerrier’s cause of death as drug intoxication from fentanyl and alcohol toxicity and his manner of death as accidental.

The forensic pathologist that performed the autopsy would later opine that, if it were not for the fentanyl that was found in Guerrier’s system, he would still be alive.

Hatfield Township Police, with assistance from the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, launched an investigation into Guerrier’s death that ultimately included a review of social media and text records, live surveillance, cell phone and vehicle tracking, and confidential informants. Investigators zeroed in on Nolan, surveilling his home and documenting multiple instances where they observed him selling drugs to others, according to the criminal complaint.

A search warrant was executed on Nolan’s home following Guerrier’s death, where police said they recovered more than five of the same pills Nolan had allegedly provided to Guerrier, along with marijuana, LSD, $4,439 in currency, drug paraphernalia, and THC brownies. During a subsequent interview with police, Nolan allegedly admitted to being the author of the Telegram messages and providing two pills to Guerrier.

Testing of the pills later revealed they were not oxycodone, but were instead comprised of fentanyl, gabapentin, and other controlled substances, according to charging documents. Police noted that during their interview with Nolan, he allegedly stated that he was not sure if the pills were real, as they made him feel funny when he had taken them.

Charges were initially filed against Nolan on April 6, and he was arraigned on June 28, at which point he was released on his own recognizance.