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RCSO charges woman with death by distribution in overdose death

Read the original article on the Richmond Observer website.

ROCKINGHAM — Investigators have charged a woman in a late 2024 overdose death.

Sarah Alexis McCumbee, 27, was arrested late Thursday on charges of death by distribution and selling or delivering a Schedule II controlled substance.

McCumbee is accused of delivering an unspecified quantity of fentanyl to Sean McDonald on or around Nov. 14, 2024. The ingestion of the fentanyl, according to the arrest warrant, “proximately caused” McDonald’s death.

The warrant, taken out by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, was issued April 21 and McCumbee was arrested April 24.

She is being held without bond in the Richmond County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court May 8.

North Carolina’s death by distribution law was signed into law in 2019, with support from both of the county’s legislative representatives in the General Assembly at the time.

The RCSO charged Regina Collins with death by distribution in January of 2020. State records show Collins was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in August of that year and she served seven months in prison. Her parole ended Feb. 14, 2022.

In 2022, the Hamlet Police Department issued a BOLO for a suspect in a death by distribution case. However, police told the RO on Friday that the charge was dismissed by the district attorney’s office based on further investigation.

Earlier this week, a woman in Greensboro was convicted of death by distribution and other drug charges from a 2022 case.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Two Men Charged with Death by Distribution Pursuant to OD Death

Gloucester man sentenced over 8 years for fentanyl distribution in girlfriend’s death

Read the original article on the WCTI News12 website.

After a four-day trial in Carteret County Superior Court, District Attorney Scott Thomas and Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck announced that Hugh Crandall Willis, Jr. of Gloucester, was convicted by a jury for his role in the death of his girlfriend, Bethany JoAlison Styron, 25 of Davis.

Willis was convicted of the following:

Death by Distribution of Fentanyl
Sale and Delivery of Fentanyl
Felonious Possession of Fentanyl

Willis was sentenced to an active sentence of 78-106 months in the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, followed by a 6-8 month suspended sentence for 36 months of supervised probation, according to officials.

The following is a release from the State of North Carolina General Court of Justice, Prosecutorial District Four:

During the early evening hours of July 30, 2022, Styron, who was with a friend at the time, pulled into a gas station at the corner of Highway 101 and Steel Tank Road in Carteret County.

After more than an hour sitting at the pump, Styron stopped breathing. Her friend called 911 and EMS pronounced Styron dead. Her cause of death was later confirmed to be from acute Fentanyl toxicity. After a thorough investigation into Styron’s death, Detectives uncovered that late in the day on July 28, 2022, Willis came to the Styron residence and delivered a quantity of Fentanyl to Styron and her friend that was with her during the time when she overdosed. The pair mixed the drugs purchased from Willis into a bag of drugs they had purchased earlier in Kinston. Styron purchased those narcotics on the way home from a weeklong medical inpatient stay at UNCChapel Hill hospital where she was treated for pneumonia, cardiac problems and complications of Hyper IGE Syndrome. Styron used and overdosed on the last amounts of the drugs in that mixture.

In October of 2022, Detectives reached a point in their investigation to charge Willis with the Sale and Distribution of Fentanyl and received an arrest warrant for that charge. When Deputies arrived at Willis’ home to serve him with that warrant and arrest him, Willis was found in possession of more of what was confirmed by the state lab as Fentanyl.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney David L. Spence, the lead detective in the case was Joseph (Cory) Bishop of the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office. The State presented 14 witnesses and 37 exhibits of evidence. The Defendant did not present any evidence. Resident Superior Court Judge Augustus Willis presided over the trial.

𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫

Raleigh Fentanyl Trafficker Sentenced to More Than 23 Years in Prison

RALEIGH, N.C. – A Wake County man was sentenced today to more than 23 years (283 months) in prison on drug charges. Myquan Taquil Houston, aka “Dirty,” pled guilty on January 13, 2025, to the offenses of conspiracy to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a substance containing fentanyl, and possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a substance containing fentanyl and 500 grams or more of cocaine.

According to court documents and other information presented in court, Houston conspired with another person to sell fentanyl to a confidential informant on five occasions in Raleigh. Law enforcement searched Houston’s house in Knightdale, North Carolina on July 26, 2023. The search revealed 502.29 grams of cocaine, 41.54 grams of cocaine base (crack), 134.46 grams of fentanyl and ANPP, 26.6 grams of Oxycodone, digital scales, a loaded .45 caliber handgun, two cellphones, and $7,970 in U.S. currency. The investigation determined that Houston sold approximately $1,400 of fentanyl every other week for at least a year prior to his arrest, making him responsible for 1,590.46 grams of fentanyl and 635.1 grams of cocaine.

Houston has prior convictions for felony breaking and entering and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute a quantity of cocaine and a quantity of cocaine base (crack), distribution of a quantity of cocaine, and aiding and abetting. Houston was on federal supervised release in the Eastern District of North Carolina at the time of these offenses.

Daniel P. Bubar, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Raleigh Police Department investigated the case and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Aria Q. Merle prosecuted the case.

Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:24-CR-00238.

Download PRess Release PDF

Deadly drug overdose leads to arrest in Currituck County

Read the original article on the Norfolk 13NewsNow website.

An extensive investigation into a fatal drug overdose led to the arrest of James Hasty.

CURRITUCK COUNTY, N.C. — A deadly drug overdose has led to an arrest in Currituck County, the sheriff’s office announced.

Nearly a year ago on April 26, 2024, deputies responded to the overdose death of Raven Massey on Taylors Road, not far from Route 168.

An extensive investigation led to the arrest of James Hasty on Monday. He was charged with death by distribution.

Hasty is being held without bond at the Currituck County Jail.

Man charged for deadly drug overdose in Kannapolis

Read the original article and watch the video on the WCNC website.

Alex Horne, 27, is charged with death by distribution in connection to the death of Rodney Anthony.

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Police have arrested a suspect after a man died from an opioid overdose in April 2024.

Alex Horne, 27, is charged with death by distribution. He is accused of supplying drugs to Rodney Anthony, who died of an opioid overdose.

Anthony died on Fir Avenue on April 20, 2024, according to the Kannapolis Police Department. It took nearly a year after Anthony’s death to identify Horne as the suspect.

Horne was arrested on Tuesday. He is being held with a $750,000 bond in Cabarrus County jail. His next court date is April 9.

Morehead City man charged in OD death

Read the original article and watch the video on the WITN News 7 website.

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (WITN) – A man has been charged with the overdose death of a woman last summer in Morehead City.

Morehead City police say Bryan Mace was arrested last Thursday on charges of death by distribution, possession with the intent to sell and deliver a Schedule II controlled substance, and delivery of a Schedule II controlled substance.

Police say Kaitlyn Curry died from an overdose last July. An arrest warrant said Mace delivered fentanyl to the 36-year-old woman

Mace was already in jail for related drug charges. His bond was increased by $750,000 due to these additional charges.

Woman found guilty of felony death charge following overdose investigation

Read the original article and watch the video on the Fox Carolina News website.

HENDERSON COUNTY, N.C. (FOX Carolina) – The District Attorney’s Office for Prosecutorial District 42 reports that a woman was found guilty after a victim died from ingesting Fentanyl in 2023.

Heather Marie Maybin, 38, from Hendersonville, was found guilty of death by distribution.

The court trial record said that Maybin was a drug dealer who conducted her controlled substances activities over Facebook Messenger.

A transaction she arranged in the Walmart parking lot located off Highland Square Drive on Feb. 6, 2023, involved a quantity of fentanyl sold for $40, the court trial record said.

The investigation revealed the victim and a friend ingested the drug that evening through a hypodermic needle. The victim lost consciousness, stopped breathing and was later declared to have died from Fentanyl toxicity

PREVIOUS: Woman facing felony death charges following overdose investigation

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office used a search warrant to obtain communications received through Facebook Messenger, court records said.

Maybin was sentenced to a minimum term of 66 months and a maximum term of 92 months in the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections.

District Attorney Andrew Murray said “My office, along with our dedicated and professional partners, is committed to ridding our community of fentanyl by holding drug dealers accountable for these untimely and extremely tragic deaths.”

After baby’s fentanyl death, Asheville mother found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

Read the original article on the Asheville Citizen Times website.

A Buncombe County jury found Samantha Lynn Higgins, 32, of Asheville, guilty of involuntary manslaughter after her child’s fentanyl-related death.
Data from a state taskforce shows child deaths by accidental poisoning — mainly caused by fentanyl — has increased statewide in the past few years and “remained high” in 2023.

ASHEVILLE – After a day of deliberation over a partially absent defendant, a Buncombe County jury found an Asheville mother guilty of involuntary manslaughter for her child’s fentanyl-related death — an issue a state taskforce said “remained high” in 2023.

Samantha Lynn Higgins, 32, of Asheville, was on trial in Buncombe County Superior Court after her 8-month-old daughter ingested or had contact with fentanyl while living in “an environment where the juvenile had access to and contact with” the drug, police said in an arrest warrant.

Asheville Police Department detectives began investigating on Sept. 8, 2022, when the child was taken to Mission Hospital. Three days later, the infant was pronounced dead.

The child’s autopsy says her cause of death was complications of blunt force injuries to the head, but fentanyl toxicity was “another significant contributing factor.” Blood sample tests during her hospitalization showed a “potentially lethal level of fentanyl,” and evidence of early organ failure was found during the autopsy, according to a copy obtained by the Citizen Times.

The child’s parents found her unresponsive early in the morning, according to the autopsy, which cites the Buncombe County Medical Examiner and APD. They took her to Mission Hospital’s Emergency Department, where resuscitation was successful, the autopsy said.

“It was reported to law enforcement that one of the parents asked hospital staff to use Narcan on the child during resuscitation, so a urine screen was performed,” which tested positive for fentanyl, the report said.

During APD’s investigation, drug paraphernalia was found “littered throughout” the apartment where the child lived, according to a news release from the Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office. The autopsy said the source of the child’s head injury was “unclear” at the time the report was written. Per department policy on case details, APD spokesperson Rick Rice declined to comment on the circumstances that may have led to the infant’s death.