By Leah Justice

leah.justice@tryondailybulletin.com

A man from Pennsylvania being held by Polk County on a murder charge since 2014 pleaded guilty in Polk County District Court on Wednesday, March 2 to involuntary manslaughter and sell/deliver schedule I controlled substance.

Sean Michael Harrington, of Philadelphia, who was 25 at the time of his arrest, was sentenced to 16-29 months in prison, with credit for 667 days of time already served.

The N.C. State Bureau (SBI) of Investigation and Polk County officers flew to Pennsylvania to extradite Harrington to Polk County in September 2014 and charged him with second-degree murder. Harrington was accused of mailing 24-year-old Elisif Bruun drugs in a greeting card that she overdosed from while staying at a Polk County rehabilitation facility. A Polk County grand jury handed down true bills of indictment on Harrington on Sept. 15, 2014 for second-degree murder from drug distribution, two counts of sell/deliver a schedule I controlled substance and one count of sell/deliver a schedule II controlled substance. The drugs mailed to Bruun were referred to as Colt 45, which includes heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. Capt. BJ Bayne, who investigated the case, said Bruun had tested clean for drugs the day before she died. Bruun died on Feb. 11, 2014.

Investigators discovered during the investigation that the drugs were mailed to the Polk County facility and tracked it back to Harrington in Pennsylvania. The arrest was the first in the area from a North Carolina law that includes a person can be charged with murder if they deliver a drug that causes a death.

District attorney Greg Newman said during Harrington’s first court appearance that the law was not particularly new in North Carolina but he had not had a factual scenario quite like the Harrington case. Newman said in September 2014 that because Harrington mailed the drugs and he did it for profit the case was different and the prosecution felt it had excellent evidence to present the case.

Harrington remained in jail awaiting trial under a $450,000 bond. If the plea deal had not occurred and Harrington had been convicted of the original charges, he would have faced more than 50 years in prison.

Bayne said on Wednesday she wanted Harrington to pay for Bruun’s death. The evidence used in the case included pouches of Colt 45 and syringes and the spoon Bruun used to heat the drugs and inject them.

The investigation and evidence also included surveillance video of Harrington going into a drugstore to purchase the greeting card and picking up a Western Union transfer that Bruun sent him for the drugs. The greeting card included the words to Bruun, “Glad I could help you out.”

Bayne said the card was sent to the SBI for fingerprints and DNA testing, which both matched Harrington.