HEROIN DEATH LINKED TO MAN

TARPON SPRINGS - When he was under investigation by Pinellas County
sheriff's narcotics detectives, a suspected heroin dealer sold the drug to
a 19-year-old man who then injected it - and died, authorities said.

Michael Aumuller, 25, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of first- degree
murder. The sometime waiter has admitted selling heroin to Jairon Nevius
and two of Nevius' friends one night in March, and Nevius later died at his
Tarpon Springs apartment, court documents state.

Four months earlier, court records state, Aumuller had twice sold heroin to
a confidential informant working for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
And in at least one of the cases, an undercover sheriff's narcotics
investigator witnessed the exchange in a Clearwater apartment, documents state.

But detectives opted not to charge Aumuller after the buys, though they had
enough evidence to do so, sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said.

As they do with many drug cases, she said, the detectives opted to keep the
case open and try to determine where Aumuller was getting his supply.

"Narcotics investigations almost have a life of their own," Pasha said.
"Some things come together quickly, and some things take a little longer."

Aumuller, however, was not being watched by investigators when he sold
between a half gram and a gram of the drug to Nevius and Nevius' friends at
a gas station in Feather Sound outside Clearwater, authorities said.

When Nevius turned up dead inside his Tarpon Springs apartment, Tarpon
Springs police were at a loss as to who had sold the drug to him and his
friends, Pasha said.

All they had was a street name of "Mike," a physical description of the
suspected dealer, and a description of the dealer's car - a maroon Nissan,
Pasha said.

When Tarpon Springs Detective Robert Faugno contacted the sheriff's office,
investigators there were able to help him figure out who the seller might
be, Pasha said.

In August, Aumuller was charged with selling the heroin to the confidential
informant. As both that case and the murder case were worked on, Aumuller
also was accused of selling bogus cocaine. But he was arrested and
sentenced to probation before charges in the other two cases were filed.