The accused drug dealer enters a not guilty plea to the murder accusation against Sarah Tillman
On Wednesday, a Bay Area man entered a not guilty plea to first-degree murder in relation to the passing of 29-year-old Sarah Tillman.
The 56-year-old Daly City resident Phillip Thei Ng is charged with supplying drugs to Tillman prior to her fentanyl overdose death at her San Mateo condominium in 2023.
A San Mateo County court revoked Ng’s $50,000 bail after he filed his plea, placing him in detention on a no bail status on Wednesday. Ng was told to appear in court again for a preliminary hearing on September 5.
According to court documents, Tillman received a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University. According to her LinkedIn page, she graduated from the University of Southern California with a master’s degree in medical science in 2021. She most recently managed communications for a pharmaceutical company in Silicon Valley.
On May 6, 2023, San Mateo Police Department officers discovered Tillman dead at home. According to investigators, they came across text conversations that purportedly showed the drug dealer’s interactions with buyers, including Tillman.
Prosecutors alleged that the victim first met Ng in early 2023 and started purchasing drugs from him. Following an almost deadly overdose in March 2023, Tillman was brought back to life with the use of Narcan, a life-saving opioid-reversing medication. Prosecutors stated that Tillman informed the defendant that the narcotics he sold her had almost killed her.
According to the lawsuit, Ng supplied Tillman pills tainted with fentanyl once more, which is what killed her, just two months later.
Per a wrongful death civil case, her parents think their daughter was unaware that the medications contained fentanyl. According to the lawsuit, Tillman passed away from an amphetamine and fentanyl combination.
