KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Lee’s Summit man is facing a second-degree murder charge for the death of a woman from a heroin overdose.
Jackson County prosecutors on Friday charged Jared M. Daniels, 28, with one count of second-degree murder and delivery of a controlled substance.
Daniels told Lee's Summit police detectives that on March 28, 2019, he provided heroin to 23-year-old Taylor Stephens, according to court records.
Stephens and her boyfriend were watching a movie in their residence later that day when Stephens went to take a bath.
After an hour and a half, her boyfriend went to check on her and found her underwater in the bathtub. Stephens was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
In the residence where Stephens died, detectives found a syringe, a syringe cap and a rubber tourniquet.
According to prosecutors, this is the first case of this type in which a drug dealer has been charged in connection with the death from overdose in Jackson County since Jean Peters Baker became prosecutor.
"The Lee's Summit Police Department deserve the community's commendation for not giving up," Baker said. "They certainly have mine. They kept working to get us to these charges."
An informant helped detectives track the heroin back to Daniels, according to records.
Prosecutors have requested a $250,000 bond for Daniels, who currently remains at-large.
Anyone with information on Daniels or his whereabouts is asked to call the Lee's Summit Police Department at 816-969-7390 or call the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
