Today, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters announced the indictment of Amanda Witt (DOB 12/18/93) for 1 count of Involuntary Manslaughter (Felony 1), 1 count of Corrupting Another with Drugs (Felony 2), and 1 count of Tampering with Evidence (Felony 3).  If convicted of all charges, she faces in excess of 20 years in prison.

Witt supplied drugs to her friend and former attorney, Richard Vanderyt, which resulted in his overdose death on March 16th.

The investigation revealed that Mr. Vanderyt requested cocaine from Witt but what he got was fentanyl.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters commented, “Drugs affect our entire community.  Rich Vanderyt was a respected member of the Cincinnati Bar and his death is a loss to our community.  Sadly, we are seeing more cases where people think they are ingesting one substance when in reality it is something much deadlier.

I want to thank the Green Township Police Department and the Heroin Task Force and Heroin Task Force Commander Tom Fallon for their work on this case and so many others.

This is not the first case like this that my office has indicted.  We have been leaders in the state in indicting cases like this to try to help curb drug abuse and deaths and support the police in their efforts. The police are doing a tremendous job investigating these cases but, unfortunately, that is after the fact.  We must, as a community, come together to fight this enemy.”