Inver Grove Heights Man Charged with Third-Degree Murder

An Inver Grove Heights man was charged on Tuesday with third-degree murder, after police say his girlfriend overdosed on the drugs he purchased for her.

Dennis James Rivers, 28, is charged with unintentionally causing the death of his girlfriend by providing her with methadone and crack cocaine. A nationwide warrant has been issued for him.

According to the criminal complaint, filed earlier this week in Dakota County District Court in Hastings, Inver Grove Heights police and medical personnel responded to a home in the 3100 block of 65th Street East just before 3:30am on Sept. 21 on a report of a person not breathing.

Rivers, whom police described as “extremely agitated and emotional,” led police to his girlfriend, who was found lying on a mattress. Emergency personnel could not find a pulse on the victim.

Rivers allegedly told police that the woman was his fiancée, and that she had taken two methadone pills and smoked crack cocaine about two hours earlier, then went to sleep in the living room.

The woman was taken to a hospital and was removed from life support two days later. An autopsy indicated that she died from anoxic brain injury due to cardiac arrest caused by probable cocaine toxicity.

When police returned to Rivers’ home on Sept. 24, he allegedly told them that he  brought the drugs home, the complaint says.

Police say Rivers admitted to officers that he and his girlfriend took methadone and then smoked crack, and that he had subsequently called one of her relatives and told them he felt “[messed] up because I bought them … I bought all the drugs … it was me,” according to the complaint.

Rivers allegedly told police that he and his girlfriend had met in drug treatment and had been together for about two years.

If he is convicted on the third-degree murder charge, Rivers faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $40,000 fine.