Thompson

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A New Jersey woman who supplied the drugs that caused the fatal overdose death of a Hollidaysburg woman in late 2019 will serve six to 15 years’ incarceration after entering guilty pleas Monday in Blair County court.

Tequila Thompson, 46, who was supposed to go on trial today, wiped away tears as she turned toward the parents of Whitney W. Gutshall, 34, and apologized.

“I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart,” Thompson told Gutshall’s parents, Vernon and Susie Gutshall, who were in court for the conclusion of a criminal case that has stretched over more than five years.

In exchange for the negotiated sentence, Thompson pleaded guilty to felony charges of drug delivery resulting in death, possession with intent to deliver and criminal use of a communications facility.

“No matter what her sentence is, ours is life,” Susie Gutshall told Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan, who encouraged the mother to treasure the memories of her daughter.

“It’s like not being able to see color anymore,” Susie Gutshall said in trying to describe what life has been like since her daughter died at her residence on Nov. 11, 2019.

“Her death has broken my heart and there is no moving on … no end of that pain,” the mother said.

District Attorney Pete Weeks said Monday that he was satisfied with the negotiated sentence because it spared Whitney Gutshall’s grieving family from the impact of trial proceedings.

Weeks said it wasn’t until after the March 24 jury selection that he learned of Thompson’s willingness to enter guilty pleas, so until Monday, he remained ready to take the case to trial.

Defense attorney Dyal McAllister of Philadelphia credited her boss, Shaka Johnson, for the negotiated plea, which she described as the best outcome for Thompson, who is extremely remorseful.

“This is something she has to live with every day of her life,” McAllister said in court.

Sullivan described the case as another example of the impact of drugs on the local community.

About a year after Gutshall’s death, Hollidaysburg Borough police charged Thompson with drug delivery resulting in death and related offenses, based on evidence showing that Thompson and Gutshall — who in 2014 were incarcerated together at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy — had arranged to meet at least twice in the weeks before Gutshall died of an overdose. Charges also indicated that Gutshall wired money to Thompson and that drugs were found in Gutshall’s residence.

In 2021, Thompson challenged the drug delivery resulting in death charge, claiming there was no evidence tying Thompson to cocaine found during the overdose victim’s autopsy. But further examination of the autopsy and toxicology reports provided police with enough evidence to pinpoint fentanyl as the contributing factor, so police, in October 2021, again accused Thompson of drug delivery resulting in death.

In 2022 and early 2023, Thompson’s charges moved slowly through the court system. The case was scheduled several times for review without further action, then in mid-2023, it was slated for jury trial, but a jury wasn’t selected.

In May 2024, Judge Fred Miller convened a status conference and he was expected to move the case forward. But Miller subsequently became ill and didn’t return to the bench, so in December 2024, it was one of several cases that Sullivan reviewed and slated for jury selection on March 23.

Online court records show Thompson has been in the county prison since Nov. 5, after being transferred there from the state prison at Muncy on unrelated charges.

Weeks said in court that when the state Department of Corrections calculates Thompson’s credit toward her newly imposed sentence of six to 15 years, incarceration time applicable to any other sentence will be excluded.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.