MONTEVIDEO -- Third-degree murder charges were filed Friday against two women in Montevideo for their alleged role in supplying morphine to a man who died of an overdose of the drug.
Daniel Edward Muncey, 47, who had recently moved to Montevideo from Tennessee, was pronounced dead Sept. 15 at the Chippewa County-Montevideo Hospital.
The third-degree murder charges were filed against Crissina Gibson, 29, of Montevideo, and Jessica Thackxton, 27, of Montevideo and formerly of Tennessee, Montevideo Police Chief Adam Christopher said Friday in a news release.
According to information from the chief, Gibson allegedly admitted she had provided Muncey with an amount of morphine on the night he died. She had a prescription for the drug.
Thackxton, who was Muncey's girlfriend, is alleged to have injected him with the morphine on the night he died.
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Muncey had been brought to the hospital after Montevideo police and ambulance squad members responded to a report of an unresponsive male Sept. 15 at the Eastgate town homes. Attempts to resuscitate Muncey at the apartment and at the hospital were unsuccessful.
Hospital staff determined that controlled substances were in Muncey's body. A subsequent autopsy by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office determined the cause of death to be morphine toxicity, according to the news release.
Police officers had obtained a search warrant following his death and seized evidence of intravenous controlled substance usage at the apartment.
Both defendants have been arrested and are currently being held at the Yellow Medicine County Jail in Granite Falls. They are expected to make their first court appearance Monday in Montevideo.
Chief Christopher said an additional charge of furnishing drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor, is expected to be filed against another Montevideo woman. The woman is a diabetic and is suspected of furnishing an insulin syringe, knowing it was to be used for injection of a controlled substance. Her identity is not being released until formal charges are filed.
The charges follow an investigation by the Montevideo Police Department and the Chippewa County Coroner's Office.
