A 60-year-old Butler woman told a county Common Pleas Court judge on Friday she is “done with drugs” before she was sentenced to serve 5.5 to 12 years in state prison for providing illegal drugs that were linked to the death of a Butler VA patient.

Nora Ann Barker of Butler pleaded guilty to charges filed against her in nine drug and theft cases, including a felony charge of drug delivery resulting in death filed following the death of Jeremy Venturini.

Venturini’s body was found March 9 in his apartment at the CARE Center, a facility leased by VA Butler Healthcare to the Butler County Housing Authority. An autopsy revealed Venturini’s death was caused by fentanyl, which was found in his system alongside prescribed medications.

Butler Township police said officers recovered full and empty bags of fentanyl near his body, as well as his cellphone. After obtaining a warrant to search the phone, police said they found text conversations between Venturini and Barker.

According to transcripts in court documents, Venturini met with Barker on March 7 to buy drugs. In the messages, Venturini expressed hesitation about the meeting place due to the presence of police, but the texts end with an agreement on a time and location to meet.

Venturini later texted his ex-wife and admitted to taking drugs to hurt himself, according to the documents.

“You can have all my stuff. I’m dead,” he said.

Venturini met with Barker again March 8, according to the transcribed messages. In the conversation, Venturini said he was buying from someone else, and Barker expressed frustration about driving from the Eau Claire area to Butler.

“I hope you got fake (stuff),” she said. “Mine’s incredible.”

In the text chain, Venturini appears to change his mind and meet with Barker anyway.

In May, police interviewed a man who said he drove Barker to her deals. Police said his vehicle matched the vehicle seen to pick up and drop off Venturini on March 8.

“(The driver) states that Barker contacted him for rides to the VA and Walmart in Butler (Township) on March 7 and March 8,” police said. “She met with an ‘older’ white man that was a patient at and lived at the VA hospital.”

In that case, county detectives charged Barker with drug delivery resulting in death. Barker pleaded guilty to that charge and charges in the other cases Wednesday during a status conference.

“I learned my lesson. I’m done with drugs,” Barker said Friday in a video appearance from the county prison, where she was being held in lieu of bail totaling $300,000 from three drug cases.

Judge Timothy McCune sentenced her to serve 66 to 144 months in state prison in the drug delivery case. Prison sentences in the other cases are concurrent to the prison term in that case.

Barker was sentenced to 30 to 120 months in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of possession of fentanyl with intent to deliver. The case was filed by state police following a March 16 incident.

Barker was sentenced to 24 to 96 months in prison after pleading guilty to a felony charge of contraband, filed by Butler City police following an Oct. 3, 2019, incident.

Barker was sentenced to 15 to 120 months in prison after pleading guilty to a felony charge of possession of fentanyl with intent to deliver filed by county detectives following a March 16 incident.

She was given no further penalty after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of possession of heroin. One count was filed by Butler City police following a Jan. 30, 2020, incident, and the other was filed by Butler Township police following a Sept. 10, 2019, incident.

No further penalty was ordered after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia filed by Butler City police following an April 22, 2019, incident.

Barker was ordered to pay restitution totaling $368 to Walmart after pleading guilty to two retail theft charges filed by Butler Township police in 2019.

Other charges filed in several of the cases were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Nora Barker