A Rockaway Township woman was sentenced this week to five years in state prison for providing drugs in the fatal overdose of an employee of a Morristown business.
Natalia E. Zyga, 30, pled guilty to distributing heroin and fentanyl last November to Sasha Truesdale in Rockaway Borough.
Truesdale, 40, worked at Panera Bread in Morristown, according to her obituary.
Superior Court Judge Robert E. Hanna sentenced Zyga. She must serve 85 percent of her sentence before being eligible for parole.
Zyga was sentenced under the state’s Strict Liability for Drug-Induced Death law, which holds someone liable for dispensing a controlled dangerous substance that results in death “from the injection, inhalation, or ingestion” of that substance.
Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Kelly A. Sandler handled the case.
Authorities responded on Nov. 23, 2018, to a report of a female who was unconscious and not breathing. Truesdale was pronounced dead at the scene in Rockaway Borough .
Raised in Hibernia and Rockaway, Truesdale graduated from Morris Knolls High School in 1996, and from Montclair State University in 2003, magna cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology.
After graduating, she worked as an insurance analyst with New Jersey Manufacturers, according to her obituary.
“Sasha’s joy in life was being an artist. She loved animals, traveling and archeology. Her passion for travel and exploration brought her to Spain, England, Belize, Jamaica, and Mexico among other places,” Truesdale’s family said.
Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp acknowledged the Rockaway Borough police department, the Morris County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit and Special Enforcement Unit, and the Morris County Medical Examiner’s Office for participating in the investigation and prosecution.
