Overdose death suspect rejects plea, will head to jury trial

Williams charged with drug delivery resulting in death

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- The city woman implicated in the March 2025 overdose death of a 32-year-old man is heading for jury selection after rejecting a global plea deal of 15 to 40 years' incarceration across three separate but related cases.

Casandra Michelle Williams, 44, was charged with single felony counts of drug delivery resulting in death, fleeing police, dealing in unlawful proceeds and knowledge that property is proceeds of illegal act, two felony counts of criminal use of a communication facility and 16 felony counts of possession with intent to deliver, as well as 28 related misdemeanors. She has been held at the Blair County Prison since April 15, 2025, on bails of $250,000, $250,000 and $5,000.

Williams appeared Tuesday before Judge Jackie Atherton Bernard for a trial list review hearing alongside defense attorney John Siford, who asked for Williams to be placed on the list for jury selection on Oct. 26.

Blair County District Attorney Pete Weeks said that his office had made Williams an offer of 15 to 40 years' incarceration across her three cases, which the victim's family agreed with, but that Williams had let the offer expire.

When Bernard asked how many days needed to be set aside for Williams' trial, Weeks said he expected it to last four days.

Williams was first charged on April 15, 2025, after officers were notified that she was driving through the city in a vehicle carrying a large amount of illegal drugs. When found, Williams failed to stop and led officers on a vehicle pursuit before being taken into custody. According to the affidavit of probable cause, a total of 14 vehicles and one pedestrian were caught in Williams' flight path.

A search warrant executed on the vehicle allegedly yielded over a half pound of methamphetamine, 13 grams of fentanyl, 42 pre-packaged wax packets of fentanyl, 31 morphine pills, four grams of cocaine, 23 grams of marijuana and two digital scales. Police estimated the street value of the items to be about $33,000.

Additional charges were filed against Williams after police allegedly uncovered Facebook messages implicating her in the overdose death of a 32-year-old man.

Altoona police were dispatched to an apartment building along the 800 block of Lexington Avenue about 10:23 p.m. March 22, 2025, for an unresponsive male. Officers found the victim cold to the touch, with no pulse and holding a hypodermic needle with an empty heroin wax packet nearby. A full autopsy report from the Blair County Coroner's Office obtained by police on April 30 listed the victim's cause of death as acute fentanyl toxicity, which led to cardiac arrest, the police report states.

When Williams was asked if she had given the victim any heroin for free, she said no but that he might have taken some from her purse or vehicle without her knowledge, court documents state.

Officers then asked Williams how she and the victim communicated for these drug deals, to which she said they mainly used Facebook Messenger. She refused officers' request for her phone's passcode, so her phone was seized pending a search warrant for its contents, the report states.

On April 22, officers were provided with a download review of Williams' cellphone, which showed multiple conversations regarding drug trafficking using various messaging platforms, including the victim on March 22 between about 2:42 and 3:06 p.m., the report states.

Mirror staff writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.