Jacob Yadon

An investigation into an overdose death has resulted in nine people being charged with drug offenses, and prosecutors are seeking to hold two people responsible for the fatality.

Eight of the people named in a series of indictments returned this month have been charged with engaging in organized crime.

Those people include:

• Jacob Yadon, 35, of Bowling Green.
• Andrea Gail Smith, 24, of Bowling Green.
• Prince McCray, 33, of Louisville.
• Amanda Dowlen, 42, address unknown.
• Lisa Brooke Carson, 41, address unknown.
• Donnell M. Johnson, 40, of Bowling Green.
• Jillian Denise Looper, 42, of Bowling Green.
• Kayla Denise Smith, 25, of Louisville.

A ninth person, Christopher Lloyd Evans, 34, of Radcliff, is charged with three counts of first-degree possession of a controlled substance.

Most of the co-defendants face multiple counts of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (heroin/fentanyl), and Yadon and Andrea Smith are also charged with second-degree manslaughter.

Yadon and Andrea Smith are accused in the indictments of wantonly causing the death of Brandon Reed on Oct. 17 or 18.

Reed’s death was investigated by the Bowling Green Police Department.

According to court records, city police responded Oct. 18 to a probable overdose death at a location on Old Nashville Road.

Detective Wade Hughes of the Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force identified Reed as the overdose victim while testifying during an October preliminary hearing in Warren District Court.

Detectives investigating the death interviewed several people and seized multiple cellphones, and later obtained search warrants to review messages on the phones.

Through those efforts, detectives were able to identify two separate drug transactions that occurred Oct. 17 outside a business at Louisville Road and Bristow Road, court records show.

According to Yadon’s arrest citation, police determined Yadon sold heroin that Reed ultimately used.

“One of these transactions has been confirmed by video surveillance from the store,” Yadon’s Oct. 22 arrest citation said.

A preliminary autopsy performed on Reed showed no lethal trauma and the presence of fentanyl, amphetamine and benzodiazepines in his system, according to court records.

Police arrested Yadon on Oct. 22, charging him initially with two counts of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (heroin).

Hughes testified in court last year that Yadon was interviewed by police Oct. 19, during which he confessed his involvement in two heroin sales.

Police took Yadon into custody three days later when he “made a veiled threat about harming himself,” according to a crisis intervention report completed by BGPD Officer Tyler Gentry.

A grand jury meeting in December initially indicted Yadon on two drug trafficking counts, but a superseding indictment against Yadon added the organized crime and second-degree manslaughter charges, along with nine more counts of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (heroin/fentanyl).

Andrea Smith faces four counts of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (heroin/fentanyl), along with the second-degree manslaughter and organized crime charges.

None of the other people indicted face charges in connection with Reed’s death, but they are accused of taking part in a conspiracy involving the selling of heroin or fentanyl between Aug. 1 and Oct. 25.

Looper and Evans have been arraigned in Warren Circuit Court and have pleaded not guilty, and court dates have been set for McCray and Johnson.