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Guilty Verdict in Child Overdose Death

SUNBURY — It’s been more than two years since a 9-year-old boy overdosed on a powerful painkiller. Thursday afternoon, there was a verdict in the ca...

SUNBURY -- It's been more than two years since a 9-year-old boy overdosed on a powerful painkiller.

Thursday afternoon, there was a verdict in the case against a man charged with the boy's death.

A jury found Victor Hare, 61, of Point Township, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of the young boy he was supposed to be watching. Victor Hare was babysitting, when he gave the child, a powerful painkiller, causing the boy to die.

Hare has been found guilty of all but two of eight charges against him.

He was found guilty of giving a fatal dose of oxycodone to a 9-year-old boy back in 2014, facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and drug delivery resulting in death among others.

“Not guilty,” said Victor Hare as he walked out of the Northumberland County Courthouse in Sunbury.

He will be sentenced within 60 days in Northumberland County.

According to police, back in 2014, 9-year-old Korbin Rager was found unresponsive at Hare's house. He was found with 12 times the therapeutic dose of the drug in his blood.

Court papers say Rager's mother dropped the child and his 16-year-old brother off at Hare's home for a sleepover. Hare was no stranger -- he was a family friend the young boys called Uncle Butch.

The next morning Kobin's brother found him unresponsive in Hare's bed.

Hare told police the boy overdosed on OxyContin pills. He gave the child CPR for 40 minutes before calling 911.

The Northumberland County District Attorney say the boy had ingested 12 times the amount needed to treat pain.

John Rager, Korbin's father says Hare took his son's life; Hare should lose his as well.

“He took my kid he should have got life,” said Rager.

Hare says the boy was an alcoholic and abused drugs, but the boy's family says they had no knowledge of these allegations.

“Then he's saying my son was a drug addict,” said Rager. “No he wasn't.”

“Justice has been done but he lost his son and you can't bring his son back,” said Clarence Reedy, a family friend.

Korbin's mother was sentenced to up to three years in prison last year for letting Hare watch her son knowing he had a drug problem.

“No one knows what I'm going through and his mom, she should have got the same as he did,” said Rager.

If sentenced to the maximum penalty, Hare faces up to 38 years in prison.

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