Charge: 'Someone's going to die tonight,' heroin dealer said before fatal overdose

A drug dealer known on the street as "Vampire" has been charged with supplying the heroin that killed one of his customers in Robbinsdale.

Jaquan P. Peoples, 30, of Coon Rapids, was charged Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court with third-degree murder involving the death of 36-year-old Phillip D. Moore of Robbinsdale.

"We've seen a number of deaths from heroin overdoses in the past year," County Attorney Mike Freeman said Thursday in a statement announcing the charge. "We will continue to hold drug dealers accountable by charging them with murder."

The medical examiner's office said Thursday that Moore died from a mixture of heroin, fentanyl, methadone and alprazolam (commercially known as Xanax), an anti-anxiety drug.

Peoples entered state prison in Rush City, in connection with a robbery conviction, about two weeks after Moore died. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Moore was married and had a daughter at the time of his death, according to his obituary posted online.

According to the criminal complaint:

The two were picked up by two other men and taken to north Minneapolis to buy heroin from "Vampire," whom officers determined was Peoples.

Peoples and his girlfriend met the four men at a parking lot near McDonald's off Broadway Avenue.

The man with Moore told police that Moore bought heroin for $75 and gave Peoples a gold ring. Officers learned that Moore and the man with him that night were apprehensive about Peoples' heroin because they heard it was laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl.

Moore and the man with him snorted the heroin, overdosed and were pushed out of a car while with the other two men.

Peoples' girlfriend told police that he was wearing Moore's gold ring. She said he gave her drugs that she believed were not the same as what was sold to Moore.

Officers found Moore's gold ring in Peoples' property at the prison.

Peoples' criminal history in Minnesota spans his entire adult life and includes convictions for assault, robbery, forgery, drug possession, theft, trespassing, weapons possession and disorderly conduct.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482