Third person arrested and charged related to teen's death in March

The police probe into the death of a Hastings teen in March continues. The teen died after an overdose of heroin and alcohol, and in April two people were arrested for the possession of a controlled substance. They accompanied the teen to St. Paul to purchase the heroin.

Recently, a third person was arrested and later charged for supplying the alcohol.

Twenty-one-year-old Danica Jean Otto of Hastings was charged with a gross misdemeanor for supplying alcohol to a minor.

According to the complaint, the teen called Otto and asked her to purchase alcohol for him and a friend. The two picked up Otto, drove her to a liquor store, gave her money and she went inside and bought a 12-pack of Bud Light Platinum.

The beer was placed in the trunk of the vehicle by Otto. The two men drove her home, dropped her off and then left with the beer in their possession.

On May 9, an investigator with the Hastings Police Department interviewed Otto, who admitted to making the purchase. The investigator reviewed security footage from the store and saw her making the purchase.

Witnesses at a gathering in Cottage Grove on March 16 observed the two Hastings men drinking the Bud Light Platinum.

Also this month, Austin Mitchell Bauer of Hastings was charged with a felony count for a controlled substance crime in the fifth degree. Bauer was one of the people who accompanied the teen to St. Paul to purchase the heroin.

The third person involved in the heroin purchase in St. Paul is Jonathan Arndt, who was charged in April and has his first court appearance Tuesday in Dakota County court.

According to the complaint, officers took a statement from Arndt during the course of the investigation. Arndt told police that Bauer drove the threesome to St. Paul. Arndt said he got out of Bauer's vehicle, met with the heroin seller and bought two small bags of heroin. He returned to the vehicle, gave one bag to Bauer and kept the other. Arndt told police he used some of the heroin and kept some for later. He told police that the teen and Bauer split their heroin. During the drive back to Hastings, Arndt held the wheel for Bauer as he snorted some heroin from the top of a CD case.

Arndt said when they returned to Hastings, he gave his remaining heroin to Bauer.

Bauer told police in a statement that the threesome went to an area in St. Paul near the Sun-Ray Shopping Center. Bauer saw Arndt get out of the vehicle and meet with someone. Bauer said he believed that the teen had injected some of the heroin he had received during the trip back to Hastings.

Bauer dropped of Arndt, then he and the teen went to a park to play disc golf.

The teen was found dead the next morning, and the coroner determined the death was caused by an overdose of heroin and alcohol.

Tags: 3 crime and courts, news, hastings, minnesota, spiral, local, may