By Vicky Wedig
Correspondent
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 11 for a Lake Geneva man charged with homicide in the overdose death of a man in September.
Andrew C. Hayes, 34, was charged Feb. 19 in Walworth County Circuit Court with first-degree reckless homicide as a party to a crime.
According to the criminal complaint, Hayes is suspected of taking Kyle Baar, 36, of Delavan, to Milwaukee to buy heroin on Sept. 21. Baar died after injecting the heroin, which was laced with fentanyl, according to the complaint.
Emergency responders were called to Baar’s Vine Street home at about 5:30 p.m. Sept. 22 where Baar was pronounced dead at the scene from an apparent drug overdose, according to the complaint. A friend told police he had last seen Baar between 8 and 8:30 p.m. Sept. 21, and family members said Baar had prior substance abuse issues but believed he had been clean for the past couple of years, the complaint states.
An anonymous source told police he had spoken to Baar, who said he had “broken down and bought some (drugs),’” which the source identified as heroin. The source said Baar told him he had been talking to Hayes who was going to the Milwaukee area to get heroin and Baar was going to take $50 in quarters to buy heroin, according to the complaint. The source said Baar told him Hayes offered to give Baar money for the quarters and take him to Milwaukee to buy heroin, the complaint states.
Police examined Baar’s cell phone and found messages between Baar and Hayes on Sept. 21 that discussed buying and selling drugs, according to the complaint. Police spoke to Hayes on Dec. 7, and Hayes admitted Baar contacted him Sept. 21 about buying heroin. Hayes said he picked Baar up on Sept. 21, and they went to Milwaukee to buy heroin from a person known as “Wheez,” according to the complaint. After buying a half-gram of heroin, Hayes and Baar injected some of the heroin in Milwaukee then returned to Delavan, the complaint states. Hayes said he and Baar each had some of their own heroin to use after injecting heroin in Milwaukee, according to the complaint.
Hayes said after he heard Baar died, he called “Wheez” to tell him to throw his stuff away because it was laced with fentanyl, the complaint states. Hayes said as a daily heroin user, he could tell when heroin was laced with fentanyl, and he and “Wheez” determined they would “stomp on the stuff” so it wouldn’t be so strong, the complaint states.
An autopsy determined Baar died as a result of opioid intoxication from fentanyl or acetyl fentanyl.
