Aberle gets five years in Rochester teen's OD death case

Leslie Aberle

CONCORD, N.H. - The Massachusetts woman who told a Rochester man to give a Spalding High senior distraught over being stood up by her boyfriend what turned out to be a fatal dose of fentanyl to "shut her up" took a plea deal Thursday in federal court that will keep her in prison for five years.

Leslie Aberle, 33, of Salisbury, Mass., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute. She had pleaded guilty last October to a charge of distribution of a controlled drug to a person under 21 death resulting, a charge that carried a 20 year up to life sentence.

Aberle's plea means the 21-month-long ordeal for the victim's family of seeing justice meted out to the three defendants in the fentanyl overdose death of 17-year-old Eve Tarmey is nearly at an end.

Tarmey died Oct. 17, 2015, in a Riviera Motel room she shared on weekends with her mom, Jazzmyn Rood, and her boyfriend, Mark Ross, both 41.

Tarmey, Ross and Aberle had driven to Methuen, Mass., the day before, a Friday, to drop Tarmey off to visit her boyfriend, whom they were supposed to meet in the parking lot of the Market Basket there.

After the boyfriend didn't show they went to pick up two grams of heroin for $80 and then returned to the motel where all of them except Tarmey got high.

Then Tarmey became distraught over not meeting up with her date and wanted to get high, too, according to affidavits, prompting Ross to tell Rood to go to the bathroom and fix her hair. (Rood didn't like to watch her daughter get high). Aberle then broke off a piece of the heroin, and Ross put it on the table, telling Tarmey to "do what she normally does."

Tarmey crushed up the heroin, and snorted it with a straw, according to court records.
After Tarmey snorted the heroin, Aberle left, and Rood, Ross and Tarmey watched TV until they fell asleep.
When Ross got up to use the bathroom around 3:30 a.m., he found Tarmey slumped over in bed and knew she was dead.

Rood has already pleaded guilty to giving false statement in a felony case and was sentenced to two years in December. Ross was sentenced to 20 years in October for supplying the drug that killed Tarmey.

Aberle's sentencing is set for next month.