Category: State News

Family says guilty plea in daughter’s fentanyl death is a step in the right direction

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A 19-year-old man pleaded guilty in Gaston County to giving his 16-year-old girlfriend a pain pill laced with fentanyl.

Investigators said Abigail Saunderson died in September 2022 from fentanyl poisoning. Now, her family wants others to hear her story and stay away from dangerous drugs.

Saunderson’s mother, Tracy Saunderson-Ross, said Nicholas Gage’s guilty plea Monday was a big win for saving lives. She said the case was critical because more young people like her daughter are losing their lives to fentanyl, and it can be avoided.

Saunderson-Ross showed Channel 9′s Ken Lemon a lock of her daughter’s hair she brought with her to court.

“This is the last thing I will ever touch of my baby girl,” she said.

She said her daughter asked Gage for a prescription pain pill last September. She said Saunderson didn’t know the pill she was taking was laced with fentanyl, and it killed her.

Read the full article and watch the video on the WSOC Tv9 web site.

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WSOC TV 9 Investigates: Incomplete Autopsies

WSOC TV 9 Investigates: Incomplete autopsies from state impacting deadly NC drug cases

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Channel 9 is continuing to investigate a statewide autopsy backlog which means some cases are getting left unsolved.

In some types of criminal cases, the medical examiner’s office isn’t even doing a full autopsy, which is making it harder to prosecute crimes in our community. Channel 9’s Genevieve Curtis found out that many of those cases are overdoses.

The Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office performs a full autopsy in overdose cases so that prosecutors can go after the drug dealers under the 2019 Death by Distribution law. But several of our local counties have to send their cases to Raleigh’s medical examiner, where they’re not getting those same results.

Union County District Attorney Trey Robison has been aggressive about prosecuting dealers who sell drugs which cause an overdose death.

“We can’t prosecute any of these cases without autopsies that we can take into court and show to a jury to try and prove our case,” DA Robison said.

But to prove it in court, Robison needs a full autopsy.

Read the full article on the WSOC TV 9 website.

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‘War on drugs’ deja vu: Fentanyl overdoses spur states to seek tougher laws

Randy Abbott seethed with anger after his 24-year-old daughter, Vanessa, died of an overdose at a North Carolina house party eight years ago. His idea of justice was “for everybody to go to jail forever.”

But today, Abbott doesn’t believe that users who share lethal drugsshould be prosecuted for the resulting deaths. In Vanessa’s case, that person was a childhood friend, herself in the throes of addiction. “She lives every day with the fact she lost her best friend,” Abbott said.

His view is part of an emotional debate unfolding in state legislatures across the country, as lawmakers move to crack down on drug crimes in response to growing anger and fearover the toll of a drug crisis killing thousands every month. In North Carolina, one of at least a dozen states this year that haveconsidered tougher drug penalties, the Senate recently passed a measure thatwould expand prosecutors’ ability to bring felony charges againstanyone who gives a lethal dose of fentanyl.

Read the full article on the Washington Post web site (registration may be required).

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Bill calls for tougher penalties for opioid, fentanyl dealers

Additional coverage of this bill can be found on the following:

CBS17 Coverage of Family Summit

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Dozens of families from across North Carolina and beyond were together in Raleigh on Saturday, remembering loved ones who died from fentanyl poisoning.

“Matthew was my first grandchild, my first grandson, and I always called him my uno because he was my number one,” one woman said to a group at the Family Summit on Illicit Fentanyl Fatalities in North Carolina.

Family members said the names of victims and their forever ages.

“Jesse’s forever age is 26,” one mom said of a son she lost to fentanyl poisoning.

Families were crying together, hugging each other and remembering loved ones.

Read the article and watch the news segment on the CBS17 web site.

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WRAL TV5 Coverage of Family Summit

RALEIGH, N.C. — More than 40 families came together Saturday at the Public Safety and Justice Conference at NC State University.

Eight North Carolinians die each day from fentanyl poisoning, and over 13,376 died from fentanyl from 2013 to November 2022.

Barb Walsh, founder and executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, lost her daughter 24-year-old daughter, Sophia, to fentanyl poisoning. Now she’s trying to connect others who’ve lost loved ones to fentanyl.

“Other people who lost a child to fentanyl, or loved one, they shouldn’t stand alone,” Walsh said. “I felt like we would all be stronger if we stood together.”

Read the article and watch the video on the WRAL Tv5 web site.

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