Pittsburgh man charged with selling fatal fentanyl to Brentwood woman in 2024

In 2024, a Brentwood woman overdosed on fentanyl she bought for $100 and died two days later.

On Tuesday, nearly two years after police took into evidence an empty stamp bag marked “Bart Simpson” in blue ink — the one they said was responsible for killing Hope Schneider — authorities charged a man with selling her the deadly drugs.

The state Attorney General’s Office Tuesday charged Marvin Washington, 60, of Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood with drug delivery resulting in death and other offenses.

He was awaiting arraignment Tuesday afternoon, court records show. His attorney was not listed.

Schneider started texting Washington through Facebook Messenger around 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2024, more than three hours before she got off work at Mt. Lebanon’s Lincoln Elementary School, according to a criminal complaint.

An online obituary identified Schneider as a custodian there.

“I have a frnd (sic) that’s sick, looking for something to help her,” Schneider texted. “She’s dopesick.”

Washington cited the price: $100 for a “brick” of fentanyl, the complaint said. The drug is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin, health experts say.

“Can you make it happen tonight?” police said Schneider responded.

“For u, anything sunshine,” Wasington replied, according to the complaint.

Police said a person, identified only as “Witness 1,” picked up Schneider from the school around 9 p.m. The two stopped at an ATM, then drove to a house in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood, the complaint said.

A man was sitting on the steps, the complaint said. Schneider got out of the car and hugged the man.

Police said the handoff of the drugs was complete in less than a minute.

Witness 1 and Schneider then drove to Schneider’s Kestner Avenue home, the complaint said. Witness 1 went upstairs. About 90 minutes later, Schneider’s son found her unconscious in a first-floor bathroom.

Police said the witness, whose name and gender aren’t mentioned in the complaint, called 911 at 11:07 p.m.

Paramedics rushed Schneider to AHN Jefferson Hospital. She died there two days later. She was 33.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Schneider’s cause of death was drug intoxication from hydrocodone, fentanyl and parafentanyl, the complaint said.

The witness later gave Brentwood police the drugs in multiple stamp bags, which Schneider had stashed in a prescription bottle, the complaint said. They later tested positive for fentanyl.

In March, police learned Schneider would visit Washington when he worked at a Sunoco gas station in Brentwood, the complaint said. Last month, detectives said they interviewed Washington at a Mt. Washington apartment.

Washington told police that Schneider reached out to him in 2024 “to get heroin,” the complaint said. He also said the two had spoken over Facebook Messenger.

The Attorney General’s office did not respond to a phone call or email Tuesday seeking comment.