death by distribution Archives - Page 6 of 13 - Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina

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

Carteret County Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office are fighting hard against fentanyl crisis

Read the original article and watch the video on the WNCT0 On Your Side website.

CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT)- The Carteret County Sheriff’s Office in collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office (District 4) continue to try to stay ahead of the fentanyl crisis and enforce the law to save lives.

Earlier this week the offices helped convict Hugh Crandall Willis Jr. of Gloucester, N.C. with Death by Distribution of Fentanyl, Sale and Delivery of Fentanyl and Felonious Possession of Fentanyl. A jury found him guilty of his role in the death of his girlfriend, Bethany JoAlison Styron.

According to Sheriff Asa Buck III, Carteret County has had three overdose deaths this year with more than 150 overdose cases in the past five years. However, he also says the county has seen a significant drop over that time period.

“Three is still too many,” Buck said. “One is too many, but it’s nowhere near the numbers of what we were seeing back in 2020, 20, 21, 22, and then in 23 and 24, the numbers began to drop.”

Buck says his office and the District Attorney’s are continuing to be proactive to the issue. The county has convicted more than 10 people with death by distribution and charged more than 30 since the General Assembly passed the statute in 2019.

“We investigate every drug overdose death just like a homicide and we have been for many years,” Buck said.

The sheriff, district attorney and others from the district attorney’s office were recently given the “Save Lives Together” award for their work in holding fentanyl traffickers accountable.

“When people are doing things and it’s causing people to die, that’s not something that you just sit back and say, well, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Buck said. “You make that a priority and you certainly try to do the very best you can to investigate those criminal offenses and hold people accountable when and where you can through the court system.”

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.

Overdose Tragedy Leads to Death by Distribution Arrest

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.

Fentanyl Victims Network of NC to present awards to Sheriff Buck, DA Thomas and team for top efforts to stop fentanyl traffickers

Read the original article on the Carolina Coast Online website.

BEAUFORT — The Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, a nonprofit based in Wake County, plans to present awards to Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck, District Attorney Scott Thomas and his team for top efforts in the state to stop fentanyl traffickers.

A ceremony will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on April 12 at the Beaufort Train Depot to recognize Buck, Thomas, Assistant District Attorney David Spence and District Attorney Legal Assistant Michelle Gillikin.

Fentanyl victims and their families will also be recognized and the event is open to the public.

In addition, there will be guest speakers, including Brooke Barnhill with the Carteret County Department of Health and Human Services Post Overdose Response Team (PORT).

Fentanyl Victims Network Executive Director Barbara Walsh, whose daughter died after unintentionally ingesting fentanyl, said, “The Sheriff is receiving an award for having the most in NC of investigations and arrests of fentanyl traffickers who caused a death. This is not because Carteret has the highest rate of fentanyl fatalities in the state. It is because Sheriff Buck cares and allocates resources to find out what caused those deaths. He treats victims and their families with dignity and respect. Some sheriffs have zero arrests.”

She added that Thomas, Spence and Gillikin are receiving awards for the most prosecutions in NC of fentanyl traffickers who cause death, the Death by Distribution charge.

“Again, this is not because Carteret has the highest number of traffickers, it is because the DA believes in keeping the community safe,” she said.

During the ceremony, Walsh said each reward recipient will speak. The event will also feature naloxone training and distribution of free naloxone. Public safety education and prevention materials will be provided.

According to their website, The Fentanyl Victims Network is a nonpartisan, action-oriented statewide grassroots nonprofit that promotes public safety, education, justice, advocacy and support of NC fentanyl victim families in all 100 North Carolina counties. The Beaufort event will be the 28th public safety and education event hosted by the organization in North Carolina.

Other purposes of the group are to spark safety conversations about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly counterfeit pressed pills, and to help provide access to life-saving naloxone in schools and communities. It’s also to connect NC Fentanyl Victim families for support and advocacy.

According to the organization, 18,594 NC residents were killed by fentanyl from 2013-23, and seven out of 10 street-pressed, copy-cat pills contain lethal fentanyl additives. The organization also provided a chart showing that from 2013-23 there were 168 fentanyl fatalities in Carteret County, with 29 Death by Distribution arrests.

In a joint statement about receiving the awards, Buck and Thomas said, “We have been working together as a team on all criminal matters since 2006 including the prescription drug issue which fueled the current heroin and fentanyl crisis we have faced in recent years. We have worked together to strictly prosecute drug offenders and we have supported treatment and recovery efforts to help people achieve recovery from their addictions and go on to live productive and healthy lives,” they stated

“We commend the tremendous work that has been done in the area of investigating overdose deaths and prosecuting these cases by Sheriff’s Office Detectives, other local police departments and the District Attorney’s Office prosecutors and legal staff. We are very proud of all of the work that has been done by these dedicated public servants investigating, prosecuting and holding accountable the offenders who have caused the deaths of citizens in our area. We hope our efforts have provided some sense of justice and closure to the families of these overdose victims.”

In addition, Buck and Thomas stated, “Everything we do should send a message to the public that we are working to address serious issues in our community and to let the criminal offenders know that we will not tolerate this type of activity and we seek to arrest, jail and prosecute them.”

For more information about the organization, go to Fentvic.org.

Contact Cheryl Burke at 252-726-7081, ext. 255; email Cheryl@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter @cherylccnt.