A Roseville man faces murder charges after authorities say he gave a “speedball” of heroin and methamphetamine to an acquaintance who later overdosed and died.
Victor Wayne Lynch, 50, was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of third-degree murder in the death of Trina Marie Maurstad.
Lynch was charged via warrant and is not yet in custody.
The charge covers cases where someone unintentionally causes someone else’s death by administering illegal drugs to the individual.
Roseville police found a 28-year-old White Bear Lake woman unconscious just after 10 p.m. Oct. 10 inside a room at the Red Roof Inn in the 2400 block of Prior Avenue.
Lynch, a maintenance man who lived in the building, was there with her, along with another woman who was attempting to give Maurstad CPR, the complaint said.
Spotting drug paraphernalia in the room and tracks on Maurstad’s arm, police suspected she was suffering from a drug overdose and they tried to reverse it using the prescription drug Narcan.
The attempt was unsuccessful and Maurstad was taken by an ambulance to the Hennepin County Medical Center, where she later died from “mixed drug toxicity,” according to the charges. Methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl — an opioid-based painkiller — were found in her system.
During their initial interviews, both Lynch and the other woman found with Maurstad reportedly told police that neither was aware Maurstad had taken drugs that evening, nor had they ingested any.
But the woman returned to the police department a couple of days later with a different account. Stating she wanted to “tell the truth,” she told police that she and Maurstad had arrived at Lynch’s room Oct. 9 to talk about an issue Maurstad was having with her boyfriend, who is a friend of Lynch’s, the complaint said.
Maurstad also wanted to get some heroin from Lynch, the woman said.
While they were there, Lynch mixed a “speedball” of methamphetamine and heroin, loaded it into syringes and offered it to the women, according to the charges. The woman said she watched as Lynch then tied a tourniquet around Maurstad’s arm and appeared to inject the drugs into her arm.
He gave her several more “shots” over the next several hours, according to the charges.
The woman said she put the syringes Lynch gave to her in her purse because she was afraid of him and didn’t want to ingest the drugs, the complaint said.
She added that she stayed at the motel because she didn’t want to leave Maurstad alone with Lynch.
Sometime during the late evening of Oct. 10, Maurstad started having seizures. That’s when the woman called police, she said.
After Maurstad’s death, she said Lynch visited her and asked her not to tell police about the drugs he had supplied because he would “go to prison,” the complaint said.
Police also recovered a video on his phone of a person they suspect is Lynch weighing heroin on a scale.
Lynch’s criminal history includes convictions for first- and third-degree drug crimes.
Maurstad’s family could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.
Anyone who is with someone who appears to be experiencing a drug overdose is encouraged to call 911, even if they also have been using drugs, said Lt. Lorne Rosand of the Roseville Police Department.
A Minnesota law protects such callers from criminal prosecution, he said.
“The quicker they can notify police or paramedics … the better, so (we) can administer Narcan or get them the first-aid treatment they need … to survive,” Rosand said.
He added that prescription drug, heroin and meth abuse is continuing to lead to dire consequences not only in Roseville, but across the state and the country.
“It’s so sad. It really is an epidemic,” he said. “We see it constantly.”
Just last week, he said, Roseville police responded to a report of a woman overdosing on heroin. She survived after paramedics gave her Narcan.