Three men suspected of drug ring arrested in Chester County

WEST CHESTER – Three men are in Chester County Jail Tuesday – two of them on $1 million bail – in connection with the June death of a mother of four, to whom two of the men allegedly sold the dangerous mix of fentanyl and other illegal substances that killed her.

On June 5, police and paramedics were called to the East Whiteland home of Tanya Elexzine Jarmon Jacobs, where they found her unconscious. The 36-year-old was six months pregnant with a son who also died from the overdose she suffered.

In late August, Chester County detectives arrested 33-year-old Marty Jene Harrell Jr., 29-year-old Davonne Marquis Dutton-Norris and 34-year-old Tajh Curry, according to a news release from the Chester County District Attorney's Office. The investigation relied on informants, a confidential witness, phone surveillance and undercover drug buys and linked them to Jacobs' death.

All three were charged with corrupt organizations, drug possession with intent to resell and other charges. Harrell, of Lancaster, and Dutton-Norris, of Valley, were also charged with drug trafficking resulting in death.

Magistrate District Judge Nancy Gill of Parkesburg arraigned all three defendants on August 29 and set bail for Harrell and Dutton-Norris at $1 million; Curry's bail was set at $250,000. Preliminary hearings are scheduled for September 19, 2024.

Chester County District Attorney Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe said, “Anyone suffering from the disease of addiction deserves a chance at treatment, not death from a bad batch of drugs. That's why Chester County law enforcement will continue to work together to hold drug traffickers accountable for their deadly drug sales.”

Criminal complaints filed by Chester County Detectives state that on June 5, 2024, at approximately 10:12 a.m., East Whiteland Police officers were dispatched to a residence on Kelmar Avenue in East Whiteland to find an unconscious 35-year-old woman. When they arrived, Jacobs' husband told them that his wife had an opiate addiction and that before she collapsed in an upstairs bedroom, he assumed she was on drugs.

Emergency life-saving measures were taken, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful. An autopsy revealed that the victim had died from an overdose of fentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl, xylazine and methamphetamine. A phone found in the house contained messages that led investigators to believe that the people Jacobs was buying drugs from were men named “Marty” and “Dutt.”

Interviews, search warrants and court orders revealed that in the days before her death, the victim had communicated with Harrell and Dutton-Norris to obtain pressed fentanyl tablets that resembled Percocet.

They interviewed a witness, whose name was not included in Detective Oscar Rosado's affidavit, who said they drove Jacobs to the Regency Park Apartments in Coatesville on June 3 and 4 to buy Percocet pills from Harrell and Dutton-Norris.

The wax bag, which the witness said contained drugs sold by Harrell Jacobs, was similar to the bag found in her bedroom that was found to contain fentanyl in the field test.

During the course of their investigation, investigators learned that a Valley residence was being used as a storage and distribution center for controlled substances such as fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. They learned that both Dutton-Norris and Curry lived there and that Harrell, although he lived in Lancaster, spent most of his time at the Barber Avenue residence.

On August 14, officers executed a search warrant for the home and seized various drug paraphernalia, packaging materials, ammunition, several ounces of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and what appeared to be pressed pills with suspected fentanyl content.

Although he is not accused of drug trafficking resulting in death, Curry has a long criminal history and was arrested in 2010 for robbing students at Immaculata University from whom he and another man tried to buy drugs.

Curry pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy in connection with the incident at the William Henry Apartments in East Whiteland on October 24, 2010.

Curry and a friend, Dashawn Lamorel London, went to the apartment complex to buy a quarter pound of marijuana from three men from whom Dashawn London had previously purchased drugs. But because London owed the men money from the earlier purchase, the price they demanded – $1,600 – was more than London had expected. A scuffle ensued, after which Curry pulled a .40-caliber pistol from his waistband, cocked it and fired a single shot into a chair.

“The next one is in someone's head,” he is said to have said. He and London eventually stole the drugs and a game console that belonged to one of the men in the apartment. He was sentenced to 6 1/2 to 14 years in prison.

In her obituary, Jacobs was remembered as a woman who loved children. “Not only was she a great mother to her four beautiful children, she often cared for other people's children,” it said. “Tanya loved to spoil her children and dared anyone to object or say anything against them.”

At the time of her death, the Owen J. Roberts High School graduate was working at a doctor's office in West Whiteland and planned to become a nurse.

Chester County detectives were assisted in this investigation by the East Whiteland Police Department, Caln Police Department, Pennsylvania Police Department, Coatesville Police Department, Valley Police Department and the Chester County Regional Emergency Response Team. Assistant District Attorney Jessica Acito is the prosecutor in charge.

If you have any information about this case, please contact Chester County Detectives at 610-344-6866.

You can contact editor Michael P. Rellahan at 610-696-1544.