MONROE — It took less than 24 hours for police to find and arrest Kerwin Lamont Harvey on a reckless homicide charge for the April 8 heroin overdose death of a 30-year-old New Glarus man.

The criminal complaint against 63-year-old Harvey, filed April 13, reveals new details on how police coordinated a sting operation to catch him using the victim’s cellphone.

Harvey was jailed on a $75,000 cash bond, then released on a $10,000 cash bond after his attorney and Green County District Attorney Craig Nolen jointly asked the court to lower the initial bond to an amount Harvey could afford to post, so that he could avoid hospitalization at county expense. 

Chris Van Wagner, Harvey’s attorney, said he negotiated the agreement with Nolen based on Harvey’s “very substantial health issues” that were flaring up in the jail. Van Wagner said it was in the best interest of everyone involved for Harvey to be released to stay with family in Madison.

The agreement asked the court to lower the bond amount due to Harvey’s “high blood pressure plus renewed intermittent chest pain subsequent to recent heart and stent surgery, which ... could require his emergency hospitalization at county expense.”

Thomas Vale, the judge assigned to the case, signed off on the modified bond April 22, and Harvey posted it the same day. A time limit for a preliminary hearing has been waived in the case.

Harvey’s bond conditions include no possession of controlled substances, no contact with the victim’s family and not leaving the counties of Dane and Green without prior approval.

Harvey has an extensive criminal record in Illinois going back decades, but since moving to Madison about 15 years ago has picked up only traffic tickets, said District Attorney Craig Nolen.

Nolen said he initially asked for the high cash bond because Harvey has a history of not showing up to court. A 2004 Dane County criminal traffic charge of driving without a license was pending against Harvey nearly five years due to his repeated non-appearances, according to state court records.

Police reports filed with the criminal complaint in the reckless homicide case show the victim’s cellphone provided clues of his final hours and is ultimately what led police to Harvey.

The night before his death, the victim texted with someone arranging to meet and told the person “I got 45,” as in $45. Between 7 and 8 a.m. the next morning, April 8, he made a series of calls to the same number. Google mapping data on his phone shows he traveled to a hotel on East Washington Avenue in Madison around the same time he made the phone calls.

He died at home within hours. His mother found him just before noon and saw he wasn’t breathing. She pulled a needle from his arm and ran to get her phone to call 911.

The number the victim called earlier that morning was found in a local Drug Enforcement Administration database.

A DEA agent told police the most recent information they had on the number was from 2009 and that it was associated with someone named “Big C” dealing heroin in the Madison area. At the time, Harvey was one of three people suspected of being “Big C.”

That afternoon shortly after 4 p.m., police began using the victim’s cellphone to send texts to the same number and arrange another drug deal outside the same hotel in Madison for the same amount of heroin.

An officer kept up the communication until the next morning, continuing to pose as the victim. Harvey was arrested in the hotel parking lot after exchanging a series of texts to determine the amount he expected ($45) and a meeting spot.

When the arresting officer took his driver’s license and asked what he preferred to be called, Harvey responded, “Big C.”

When Harvey learned of the overdose, he “became emotional” and at first denied meeting with the victim, but after police explained they had evidence on the victim’s phone, he “became quiet.”

During his transport to the Green County Jail, Harvey, unprompted, began telling police “what really happened.” He said he’d known the victim for about two years and sold him $45 worth of heroin the previous morning.

Harvey said the victim immediately injected some into his arm after buying it and Harvey told him to “go do that ... somewhere else.” Harvey said he thought it was possible the victim may have kept some of the heroin for later, as it was around double the amount of heroin he normally bought.