BRICK TOWNSHIP — Police recently arrested an Asbury Park man in connection with the drug overdose death of a 23-yearold Brick man back in March.
Members of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office homicide unit and Brick police arrested Willie M. Platts, 56, at 7 p.m. on May 20 in Asbury Park without incident.
Platts was charged with the strict liability/ drug-induced death of Richard Osborn Jr., 23, Princeton Pines Place, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police responded to Osborn’s home at 10:35 a.m. on March 28 and found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 10:54 a.m., according to Deputy Chief Michael Mohel of the Prosecutor’s Office.
A multi-agency investigation began that included Brick police, the Prosecutor’s Office’s homicide, special operations and computer crimes unit, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department’s criminal investigations unit.
An autopsy was done on March 29 by Dr. Gerard Breton of the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office. The cause of death was deferred pending results of toxicological tests.
The tests came back on May 8 and revealed lethal amounts of heroin in Osborn’s system, Mohel said.
Platts was arrested without incident. Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson Jr., sitting in Toms River, set Platt’s bail at $250,000, with no 10 percent option. He was taken to the Ocean County Jail in Toms River.
Platts was released from the Monmouth County Jail on Sept. 4, 2008, after serving 16 months of a three-year sentence for burglary and eluding, according to the state Department of Corrections website.