DARLINGTON — A man with an extensive history of drug convictions in the area has been charged for the heroin overdose death of 31-year-old Timothy J. Williams Jr., who died in 2016 at his South Wayne home.
Jeremy H. Hardyman, 34, faces a Class C felony charge of first-degree reckless homicide by the delivery of drugs and a Class F felony charge of delivering heroin. The charges were filed against him Sept. 10 in Lafayette County Circuit Court and carry a maximum sentence of 52 and a half years in prison.
His initial appearance is Oct. 14. He is currently in a state prison for men in Chippewa County on a drug conviction.
Williams’ parents had been searching for answers in their son’s death for years. Last fall the family started posting flyers offering a $1,000 reward for information on the case.
The mystery was the identity of a man who called 911 from Williams’ cellphone at his home at about 3:30 a.m. Feb. 20, 2016. The caller provided Williams’ address on West Center Street, and when the 911 dispatcher asked, “What’s going on?”, he answered, “Um, my friend —” before the call disconnected.
Whoever made that 911 call left Williams dying or dead, with no one else at home with him but his 4-year-old daughter. First responders found Williams “slumped onto the kitchen table” next to an uncapped syringe with his daughter standing next to him trying to wake him, according to reports from Lafayette County sheriff’s deputies.
As of about nine months ago, Chief Deputy Troy Loeffelholz said detectives were “at a standstill” trying to determine who made that 911 call and who gave Williams the heroin that killed him. In Wisconsin, a person who supplies the drug that causes an overdose death can be held criminally responsible.
Now court records show Hardyman was an early suspect as both the 911 caller and dealer, but detectives did not establish a connection until this summer.
On March 8, 2016, detectives met with Hardyman at the Green County Jail for an interview, but Hardyman refused to speak with them without a lawyer present.
Another challenge detectives faced in proving Hardyman’s connection to the case was that text messages from Williams’ apparent dealer the night he died came from a pre-paid “burner” cellphone registered under a fake name, “Pat Doe.” Hardyman later told police he used a lot of untraceable phones like this in 2016.
Earlier on the night of the overdose, the dealer texted Williams, “Hey buddy just letting you know there’s some really really good stuff around if you need anything.” Williams texted back that after paying bills he had $200 leftover “if you could grab me 2 and bring them down to me.”
During a review of the case in May and June, Det. Paul Klang went through records of this phone number and found that 40% of the calls and 52% of the texts “have a direct connection” to Hardyman, for example, calls to his brother and father. Klang also got a mapping record for where the phone had been used, and it showed mostly in Freeport, a city Hardyman frequented to visit family, as well as South Wayne.
In May, Hardyman agreed to an interview with detectives. According to detective reports, Hardyman said he’d been using heroin since 2012 and he didn’t consider himself a drug dealer but a “middle man” who supplied drugs to friends.
Hardyman identified a Dubuque man when asked who sold Williams the fatal heroin, but the details didn’t check out, according to Klang.
Hardyman at first denied ever being at Williams’ home, then later said he had been to his home.
“When we spoke with Jeremy his demeanor changed when talking about Timothy,” Klang noted. Hardyman “was upbeat and would look you in the eye when talking” about anything else, but when Williams came up, he “took a big swallow and spoke quieter, as well as looked down frequently.”
Klang also noted Hardyman was associated with other, non-fatal heroin overdoses around the time of Williams’ death. About two weeks after Williams died, Hardyman drove a friend who was overdosing to the Monroe Clinic ER.
Soon after speaking with police, Hardyman said his friend had cut the heroin with Dormin, a sleep aid that contains diphenhydramine. Police reported finding Dormin capsules on Hardyman.
“This is noteworthy as Timothy’s toxicology report showed a positive result for diphenhydramine ... leading to the conclusion that Timothy’s heroin was also cut with the diphenhydramine,” Klang wrote.
Police reports for other cases indicate Hardyman himself has a history of overdoses and overdosed on heroin in 2013 and 2017.
Williams, who grew up in South Wayne and Gratiot and graduated from Monroe High School in 2003, battled heroin addiction for years prior to his death. He was too ashamed to seek treatment, his family told the Monroe Times earlier this year. They remember him as a loving father to his two children, a talented guitarist and enthusiastic music lover, a “huge” Packers fan and a respected welder.