RICHLAND – A suspected Richland heroin dealer is in the Benton County jail in connection with two overdose deaths.

Brian Haney Burt, 35, is on a 72-hour hold for investigation of two counts of homicide by controlled substance.

Burt is accused of selling heroin between October 2007 and July 2010 to two people in Benton County who used the drugs and died, according to District Court documents.

Information about two drug-related deaths in Franklin County has been forwarded to investigators there, the documents said.

Burt was booked into jail Wednesday.

Richland officers with the department’s Proactive Anti-Crime Team contacted Burt in the Walmart parking lot after he tossed a cigarette out the passenger window of a car, documents said.

The driver of the car did not have a driver’s license, and officers stopped them to investigate the violation, documents said.

When Burt was identified, officers discovered he had a warrant for his arrest for failing to appear in court.

Officers searched him and found seroquel and clonidine, both prescription drugs, documents said. But the pills were not in a prescription bottle as required by state law.

Burt was taken to the Richland police station and questioned by officers. He reportedly told them he was addicted to heroin and sold the drug, documents said.

When officers asked Burt about past heroin overdoses and deaths in the Tri-Cities in recent years, he said he supplied heroin to four people who have died, documents said.

The victims were Jason Brickey, Liam Hermsen, Natasha Eubanks and Derek Bradley.

According to Herald archives, Brickey, 34, of Kennewick, died Oct. 30, 2007, and Hermsen, 29, of Richland, died Nov. 8, 2009.

Benton County Coroner John Hansens confirmed Thursday that both men died of an accidental overdose.

Herald archives show Natasha Eubanks, 29, of Pasco, died at her home May 16, 2009, and Derek Scott Bradley, 21, of Pasco, died June 30, 2010.

Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel said Thursday that Eubanks died of a heroin overdose and Bradley died of a methamphetamine overdose.