WACONIA, Minn. — Months of investigating have resulted in two people being charged, one with murder, in the August overdose death of a Carver County man.
Criminal complaints detail the case against 24-year-old Alexander Brent Finney of Chaska, who is charged with third degree murder, and 26-year-old Nicole Elizabeth Marini, who is charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Deputies were dispatched to a home on the 600 block of 1st Street East in Waconia the evening of Aug. 15, and upon arrival found 33-year-old Jeffrey Jayson Hanson unresponsive. There was evidence of intravenous drug use on the scene. Hanson was rushed to the hospital where he died.
A warrant was obtained and investigators located needles and suspected heroin at the scene of Hanson's death. A field test suggested that the heroin was laced with fentanyl.
Hanson's roommate, identified in court papers as BB, was questioned by investigators and told them he had arranged a heroin purchase from a dealer named "Finney," later identified as defendant Alexander Brett Finney. The roommate told detectives that he set up the deal but Hanson made the buy, and used the drugs immediately afterwards. BB found Hanson unresponsive in the living room within minutes.
BB told police he tried giving Hanson two different shots of Narcan, but when he didn't improve the roommate called 9-1-1.
Cell phones confiscated from the scene were examined, and investigators say they found texts and Facebook messages between Hanson, BB and Finney arranging the drug sale.
Marini was arrested three days after Hanson's death for various drug offenses, and reportedly told an officer that Finney was responsible for selling heroin to Hanson and BB on Aug. 15. She is accused of going with Finney to get the drugs from their dealer in Minneapolis, and then helping to broker the heroin deal with Hanson and BB, who were friends from her middle school days.
Recordings made on a jail phone line used by Finney captured him telling someone that Marini had "snitched" on him, and that he actually sold heroin to BB, not Hanson and so he wasn't responsible.
If convicted Alexander Finney could face a 25-year prison sentence.
