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Two organizations for families who have lost children to fentanyl overdose came together in a show of solidarity Tuesday as a defendant charged with death by distribution made a brief appearance in Wilson County Criminal Superior Court.
Members of Wilson’s Moms on a Mission and the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina sat in the courtroom as defendant Albert Green, 23, of Wilson, appeared with his attorney, Will Farris.
Green is charged with felony death by distribution in the fatal overdose of 17-year-old Jacob Puente Castro, who died Sept. 25.
Green faces additional charges including felony selling and delivering a Schedule II controlled substance, felony possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, felony maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for the purpose of controlled substances and felony possession with intent to manufacture, sell, deliver a Schedule II controlled substance.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, Green’s case was continued to Dec. 10. He’s been out of jail since posting a $100,000 secured bond.
Families who have lost children to fentanyl overdoses are working to bring awareness to an ongoing surge in fentanyl poisonings in Wilson, the state and the nation.
Jacob Puente Castro’s parents, Felicia Puente Castro and Isaac Puente Castro, said seeing Green in court angered them.
“Seeing him did not feel good,” Felicia Puente Castro said outside the Wilson County Courthouse. “It is hard to look at him and know that one person could cause so much damage.”
The mother said her son was “the love of our life.”
“It’s hard today, but I see today as a good day that we had prayed for,” she said. “It is another step toward getting justice for not only us, but the support group behind us. We want the justice.”
The father held a poster bearing the names and photos of seven fentanyl overdose victims, including Jacob Puente Castro.
“We just want justice to be served — not only for our son, but for all of our supporters,” Isaac Puente Castro said.
“I want this person, Albert Green, to be held responsible for what he has done,” Felicia Puente Castro said. “I want to see our DA, Jeffrey Marsigli, the DA here for Wilson County, Edgecombe County and Nash County, I want to see him do his job. I want to see him put pressure on this case. I want to see him do his best to clean up this community — Wilson, Edgecombe and Nash.”
Felicia Puente Castro said she doesn’t want any more young people to die from fentanyl.
“Their future is gone,” she said. “We won’t get to hold our babies. We won’t get to go to their weddings. We won’t see them anymore at our Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, for their birthdays. We don’t get to see our children anymore.”
Moms on a Mission member Patricia Harris Atkinson of Wilson, whose son Al Douglas Langston III died from fentanyl on April 3, 2020, said she felt compelled to support the Puente Castro family and to bring awareness of the overdoses happening in Wilson and surrounding counties.
“We support one another,” Atkinson said. “We provide a special hub for families that are actually going through this, the same thing that we have to go through, losing a kid, thinking they got one pill and they got a pill laced with some fentanyl. So we support each other. We are here for Felicia for court support. We support all the moms and all the families that have lost someone.”
Barb Walsh of Raleigh established the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina a year after his daughter, Sophia Walsh, died from fentanyl on Aug. 16, 2021.
“The most important thing is to support one another,” Walsh said. “There are over 18,000 North Carolina residents that have been killed by fentanyl.”
Walsh said fentanyl overdose victims’ parents often feel alone.
“Sophia drank a bottle of water. It contained fentanyl, and she died,” Walsh said. “She didn’t know what fentanyl was, didn’t know how to spell fentanyl and felt completely alone.”
In court Tuesday, 15 people who have lost loved ones to fentanyl sat together.
“You have strength in numbers,” Walsh said. “We have the DA see these families. We have law enforcement who see the families. We have defense attorneys who represent the criminals who kill people see all of us in the courtroom, and they are like, ‘OK, we need to do something about this.’ And the judge sees it too.”
Walsh said the two groups are “moving the needle.”
Family members don’t want more people to die.
Walsh would like to see tougher laws to hold people accountable for selling dangerous substances.
“Nobody else in the United States is allowed to sell a product that kills people,” Walsh said. “I don’t care if it’s fentanyl or embalming fluid. If it takes someone’s life, that person should be prosecuted and put in jail.”
Walsh cited a North Carolina law enacted in May 2023 that makes it a felony offense to possess a pill press if it’s used to manufacture controlled substances.
“What we see and know about fentanyl is it is very cheap and it is cheaper than a land-grown product like cocaine or heroin,” Walsh said. “And so you see these entrepreneurs whose business is to sell controlled substances choose to use cheaper substances. Instead of using cocaine, they will use fentanyl. Can’t tell the difference. Same as heroin. So they get more profit.”
Walsh said it’s all about the money for the drug dealer — “it’s someone else’s life and they don’t care.”
She said pill presses allow traffickers to manufacture thousands of fentanyl-laced pills, which are often disguised as counterfeit prescription drugs.
“It’s just like a chocolate chip cookie,” Walsh said by analogy. “We don’t know where the chocolate chips are going to end up. We don’t know where the fentanyl is going to end up in a pill. You could cut it in half. One person takes a half, the other person takes a half. One dies. One lives.”