Cops: 'Madam Heroin' injected boyfriend to death

A WOMAN who Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood called "Madam Heroin" has been charged with drug delivery resulting in death for allegedly injecting her boyfriend with a fatal dose of heroin in April.

Chitwood said it's the first time in his nine-year tenure with the Upper Darby police that his department has used the charge, which is a felony that falls under criminal homicide in the Pennsylvania Crimes Code.

On April 1, Jacquelyn Scala, 36, called police to the apartment she shared with Fiore Caputo, 59, on Hiawatha Lane near Dermond Road in Drexel Hill because Caputo was dead.

Scala was forthcoming with officers and admitted she had injected Caputo with heroin "because he was afraid of needles and he always butchers his own veins," Chitwood said.

Scala told police she consumed 20 bags of heroin a day while Caputo usually took three to six, Chitwood said. However, on the day before Caputo died, Scala had injected him with nine bags, police said.

On June 25, the Delaware County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Caputo's manner of death was homicide as a result of adverse effects to acute heroin and fentanyl intoxication, Chitwood said.

Yesterday, Scala was arrested at Eagleville Hospital, a rehabilitation facility in Eagleville, Montgomery County, and charged with drug delivery resulting in death, possession with the intent to deliver and related offenses, police said.

"She's Madam Heroin," Chitwood said. "She told our officers she was glad she was in Eagleville and going to jail because she owed so much money to the drug dealers."

Chitwood said the arrest highlighted a growing heroin problem in his township and the country. From December 2010 to June 2014, there were 26 heroin overdose deaths and 142 other overdose cases from heroin in Upper Darby alone, Chitwood said.

"The heroin problem is out of control nationwide," Chitwood said. "Hopefully this will send a strong message. I would love to get the dope dealer that was selling them the drugs."

Chitwood said the charge of drug delivery resulting in death carries a mandatory-minimum sentence of five years in prison. Scala, who had two probation violation detainers on her when she was arrested, was remanded to the Delaware County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail.

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