Manslaughter plea entered in drug death

A Montrose man admitted Friday to injecting his girlfriend with a drug cocktail that led to her overdose death in June 2011.

Eugene Parrish, 34, pleaded guilty inSusquehanna County Courtto involuntary manslaughter – a first degree misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

He will be sentenced by President Judge Kenneth Seamans on March 22.

Kathryn Pelka, 31, Tunkhannock, died June 20, 2011, after Parrish twice injected her with heroin, according to court documents. The incident occurred at the Endless Mountains Lodge, Rt. 11,New Milford.

Autopsy results indicated the woman died as a result of the “combined pharmacologic effects of cocaine and morphine.”

Parrish also told police thought Pelka could have been dead for two hours before he called 911. He also agreed with police that if he had called 911 when she became unconscious, she may still be alive.

At the time of Pelka’s death, Parrish was awaiting sentencing in Susquehanna County Court on an unrelated case.

On May 4, 2011, Parrish pleaded no contest to a charged of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age stemming from an April 11, 2010 incident in Dimock Twp.

He was sentenced in that case on August 18, 2011 to serve nine to 23 months and 16 days in the Susquehanna County Correctional Facility.