Tag: wilson county
Man charged with death by distribution in 2024 case
Read the original article on the Wilson Times website.
A Florida man faces a felony death by distribution charge after allegedly providing drugs that led to a Stantonsburg man’s death in May 2024, Wilson police announced.
Jamel Lamar Neal, 41, of Orlando was charged in the death of Jerrian Maushan Poole, 22, of Stantonsburg, according to a statement from Sgt, Eric McInerny, public information officer with the Wilson Police Department.
McInerny said that at 5:19 p.m. on May 19, 2024, officers responded to a residence on Lear Court after a report of an overdose.
“Upon arrival, officers located two individuals, including Poole, who were unconscious and not breathing,” McInerny said. He said Wilson County EMS was on the scene and pronounced Poole deceased.
According to the warrant, the substance Neal is accused of distributing is fentanyl.
McInerny said that the second individual was taken to Wilson Medical Center, where they were later released.
“Through the course of the investigation, it was determined that Poole’s death was the result of multiple drug intoxication,” McInerny said. “Investigators identified Neal as the individual who provided the narcotics to Poole. Based on the findings, a warrant was obtained for Neal on one count of felony death by distribution.”
McInerny said that on Aug. 18, Neal was located in Seminole County, Florida.
Neal was taken into custody and subsequently extradited to Wilson.
Neal was placed in the Wilson County Detention Center with a $75,000 secured bond. He remained incarcerated as of Thursday morning.
Police ask anyone with information about the case to call the Wilson Police Department at 252-399-2323 or Crime Stoppers at 252-243-2255.
Defendant in death by distribution case charged with fentanyl possession
Man sent to prison in death by distribution case
Read the original article and view the pictures on the Wilson Times website.
A Wilson man received more than five years in prison after pleading guilty in the county’s first death by distribution case, following the fentanyl overdose death of a 25-year-old Navy veteran.
A Wilson man was sentenced Monday to an active term in state prison after pleading guilty to the first death by distribution case to be adjudicated in Wilson County.
Tabron Tyrone Farmer, 35, of the 5100 block of Wilson Road, made an Alford plea July 29 to death by distribution in the June 25, 2023, death of 25-year-old Shade Izayah Anthonee Staples. An Alford plea is an arrangement in which the defendant doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges there is likely enough evidence to ensure a conviction
In Wilson County Criminal Superior Court on Monday, Resident Superior Court Judge L. Lamont Wiggins sentenced Farmer to a minimum of five years and seven months to a maximum of seven years and nine months active in the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections.
Farmer is the first person to be sentenced in Wilson in a death by distribution case since modifications in the death by distribution law were ratified in September 2023, providing for stiffer sentences for defendants who unlawfully deliver certain controlled substances that proximately cause a person’s death.
Assistant District Attorney Kristen Spainhour told the court that on the date of his death Staples had consumed three beers at Brewmasters at lunchtime, at which time he called Farmer asking to purchase Percocet pills.
Spainhour said Staples walked to a nearby store to meet Farmer. Staples purchased two blue pills from Farmer. Spainhour said the transaction was captured on video, adding he thought he was purchasing Percocet.
Spainhour told the court that the defendant called the victim shortly thereafter saying that he thought he had given him the wrong package, that he “thought he messed up.”
At 2:22 p.m. on the date of his death, family members noticed that Staples’ speech was slurred while he was playing a video game with his sister, Spainhour said. Staples “slumped over on the couch” and was not moving and his eyes had rolled back, Spainhour told the court.
First responders could not revive Staples despite giving him the overdose reversal medication naloxone.
Spainhour said fentanyl was determined to be the cause of death.
Spainhour said the victim’s family was “devastated” by the loss.
Defense attorney Andrew Boyd told the court that his client pleaded guilty as a result of a plea arrangement in which lesser charges were dismissed.
Boyd told the court that Farmer has 12 children, is married and that his wife was in court for the sentencing.
“There is nothing we could say that would bring Shade Staples back,” Boyd said.
Farmer was ordered to pay $2,975 in counsel fees to attorney Boyd.
Wiggins revoked Farmer’s bond and ordered him taken into custody.
STAPLES A NAVY VETERAN
After the sentencing, Staples’ mother, Taira Gandarilla, formerly of Wilson and now residing in Knightdale, told the Times that her son was a Navy veteran.
“It is kind of bittersweet,” Gandarilla said. “Regardless of the outcome, it’s not going to bring Shade back, but it is very rewarding as a mother to know that even though my son sacrificed his life, we can definitely prevent somebody else from losing their life as a result of this young man’s carelessness.”
Gandarilla said it was comforting to her that other parents of Fentanyl overdose victims were in the courtroom at the time of the sentencing.
Ten families of Wilson County fentanyl overdose victims were present in the court for Monday’s hearing.
Gandarilla said that until Monday, she did not know this group existed.
“You guys didn’t know me from Sunday, and to know that I already have a family is incredibly comforting,” Gandarilla said. “You can go through therapy all day long, but the best therapy is to go through it with people who have walked in your shoes. We have than commonality that is going to forever bond us.”
Gandarilla said her son was “first and foremost a brother.”
“Shade absolutely coveted the relationship that he had with his sisters. He was the oldest of four siblings. He had three younger sisters, and those were his girls. He was incredibly family oriented. He was an old soul. For a 25-year-old man, he literally saw the world differently than anybody else I had ever met. He just saw things from a different lens. He was always asking questions. He wanted to learn as much as possible every single day.”
Two other death by distribution cases are pending in Wilson County.
Wilson County has had 151 fentanyl fatalities since 2013, according to Barb Walsh of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. She was with parents of overdose victims who were at the courthouse.
Wilson County installs naloxone kiosks to fight opioid overdose deaths
By Jaymie Baxley
Naloxone is a widely available medication that can bring someone back from the brink of death in minutes, but cost, stigma and other barriers have kept the opioid overdose antidote out of reach for many of the North Carolinians who need it most.
In Wilson County, a new initiative aims to break down those barriers by giving residents free, 24/7 access to naloxone — no questions asked.
Repurposed newspaper dispensers filled with naloxone nasal spray were installed last month at five sites in the rural, eastern North Carolina county. These kiosks also contain information about recovery services for substance use disorder and testing strips that can be used to check illicit drugs for deadly substances such as fentanyl.
They were purchased with funds from a $2.9 million federal grant awarded last year to the Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition, a nonprofit that has been at the forefront of local efforts to reduce the human toll of the opioid epidemic. More than 220 lives were lost to overdose in Wilson County from 2013 to 2023, according to data from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
Jeff Hill, executive director of the coalition, said the goal of the kiosks is to “make sure that any person who needs a box of naloxone in Wilson County can access it at no charge.”
“Yes, over-the-counter Narcan is available, and yes, I can buy it at Walmart,” said Hill, referring to the brand name of naloxone. “But if I’m a person in early recovery who’s trying to help somebody, or I’m a person in active use or a family member of a person in active use with limited income, I might not have $50 to spend on that box of Narcan.”
Strategic placement
One of the kiosks was installed at BHG Wilson Professional Services, a center that provides medication-assisted treatment to residents recovering from opioid use disorder.
Amber Leclercq, program director for the center, said the kiosk was “strategically placed” on a side of the building that faces a row of tall bushes.
“With the vending machine being right there, it’s easy to access but also shaded enough to where other vehicles driving down the road don’t see,” she said. “If people are not yet ready to seek treatment or if they’re scared, this gives them the opportunity to discreetly obtain tools and information that might be life-changing. They’re taking the first step.”
The four other Wilson County kiosks are at county-owned facilities, including the local library, Health Department and Department of Social Services, and at Recovery Concepts Community Center, a coalition-run space that hosts meetings for addiction support groups.
[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1lIHOTO4n0pH6iUjEOKycmPsB0xS9dEo&ehbc=2E312F&w=640&h=480]
Each kiosk was initially loaded with 25 boxes of naloxone and 100 testing strips. Hill said interest in the stations had surpassed the coalition’s expectations, with a couple of them needing to be restocked just days after they were installed on March 24.
“Our machine was one of the ones that got cleaned out pretty quickly,” said Lori Walston, director of communications for the Wilson County Department of Social Services. “We have a lot of foot traffic because of our agency and what we do. Also, the neighborhood where we sit is one of the neighborhoods of greater need in the community.”
Alisa Milliken, the department’s grants and wellness coordinator, said the agency also serves a number of residents experiencing homelessness — a population with an especially high risk of overdose.
“We have a lot of homeless people coming in on a daily basis needing food and things like that, so we expect that the Narcan will keep going pretty quickly, probably every time at our location,” she said.
Hill said the kiosks will be regularly replenished using funds from Wilson County’s share of a landmark court settlement with the pharmaceutical companies that allegedly fueled the national opioid epidemic. The county is set to receive a total of $7.8 million in annual payments through 2038.
Community education
Esteban Arizpe, a community paramedic with Wilson County EMS, said arming citizens with naloxone reduces strain on first responders.
“When someone calls 911 for an overdose and they’re actually administering the naloxone prior to EMS’ arrival, it greatly increases the chance of that person surviving while freeing up our units for other calls,” he said.
The kiosks not only provide easy access to naloxone, they also provide instructions on how to use it. Each station is equipped with a video player that gives a step-by-step tutorial for administering the drug.
“One thing that we strive for is to better ourselves and better our community by providing resources and giving them the education to know the signs and symptoms of an overdose, and how to treat it,” Arizpe said. “This is something that is helping us to meet that goal.”
Arizpe added that he’s seen a “great increase in knowledge” around naloxone and other tools such as syringe exchanges and testing strips — collectively known as harm reduction methods — among residents in recent years.
The increased awareness has coincided with a drop in emergency department visits. Admissions of overdose patients to the ER at Wilson Medical Center fell 36 percent from 2022 to 2025, according to DHHS data.
Multi-county effort
The grant used to buy and stock the kiosks came from the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, a multi-year initiative managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.
In addition to paying for the five kiosks in Wilson County, the money allowed the coalition to buy four stations to place in nearby Edgecombe, Nash, Warren and Wayne counties. The total cost for the project was $10,000.
The kiosk for Wayne County was presented to the local Health Department. Margaret Brake, the department’s director, said she will be meeting with community partners this month to determine where it should be placed.
“We like the idea that people will have 24-hour access to naloxone,” she said. “Particularly if it’s someone that’s homeless or struggling—they can get what they need when they need it. We’ve even talked about putting some canned goods in there, just to have some additional things the community can use.”
Mark Winstead, a pastor at Restoration Purpose Church in the small Nash County town of Bailey, is also trying to find a good site for his community’s kiosk. He described Bailey, which had a population of fewer than 600 people at the 2020 U.S. Census, as a place where “everybody knows everybody.”
“There’s still a stigma there,” Winstead said. “But if I can put something somewhere, and maybe it’s a well-known commissioner’s son who’s battling addiction and he can discreetly come get naloxone, then that’s what it’s all about.”
“You can’t treat somebody that’s dead,” he added. “We gotta be able to save their life first — and then we can work on the rest of it.”
This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Town hall meeting to educate public on dangers of fentanyl
Event organizers are sounding the alarm on the fentanyl crisis that continues to claim lives. The Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina will hold a town hall meeting in Wilson from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1, at Foundation YMCA of Wilson at 233 Nash St.
The purpose of the event, organizers say, is to spark public safety conversations about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly when it’s found in counterfeit pressed pills like Adderall, Xanax and Percocet.
Organizers will also be distributing naloxone, which goes by the brand name Narcan, and train those attending on how to administer the lifesaving antidote. Local families will also share their heart-wrenching stories of how their loved ones have died from fentanyl poisonings. The event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.
ADDRESSING THE ISSUE
Barb Walsh, founder of Fentanyl Victims Network, has been working with Wilson families who are reeling from the loss of their own children who have died as a result of unintentional fentanyl deaths. The hope, she said, is to bring awareness to a problem that is plaguing the country, the state and Wilson.
“This is a public safety problem we want to address,” Walsh said.
Walsh is holding several town halls throughout the state.
“I chose Wilson because there is a pocket of very active families,” Walsh said. “We have two death by distribution cases going on (in the court system).
Local elected officials, public health professionals, advocates, parents of fentanyl victims, first responders and representatives from the Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition and the Wilson County district attorney’s office will be in attendance at the Feb. 1 town hall meeting. Local law enforcement members have also been invited, organizers said.
“I think it’s important for people to see these numbers and realize how many people are dying,” said Lisa Bennett, co-organizer of the event. Bennett lost her son, 22-year-old Mason Bennett, in February 2023. He died after taking what he believed was a Percocet, a prescription painkiller, but it was laced with fentanyl, she has said. Since her son’s death, Bennett has been working with Walsh and her nonprofit.
Walsh said 18,457 people in North Carolina have died as a result of fentanyl over a 10-year period.
From 2013 to October 2023, there have been 138 fentanyl deaths in Wilson County alone, according to state data Walsh has compiled.
SOUNDING THE ALARM
Walsh founded the Raleigh-based nonprofit after her daughter, Sophia Walsh, died from fentanyl poisoning in August 2021. Walsh’s daughter drank what she thought was a bottled water from someone’s refrigerator.
Unbeknownst to her, it contained diluted fentanyl. Sophia died, and no one called 911 until 10 hours later, Walsh said. No one was charged.
“We didn’t know what she died from until five months later,” Walsh said.
After her daughter’s death, Walsh channeled her grief into research, advocacy and justice for other victims. Walsh has worked across the state to bring awareness to the dangers of fentanyl and has worked with families to demand justice in their cases by utilizing state law and getting those responsible charged.
‘IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR CHILD’
Walsh said there’s a misconception about fentanyl deaths. She said not all deaths are the result of someone in active addiction. Some people are simply experimenting.
Seven out of 10 “street” pressed copycat pills contain lethal fentanyl additives, according to officials.
Fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, is a synthetic opioid that can be lethal even in small doses.
“It could happen to your child,” Walsh said. “The pressed pills are the culprit.”
Organizers hope to educate families and encourage parents to talk with their children about the dangers that are out there.
“If we can stop just one family from having to go through this it will be worth it,” Bennett said.
Bennett said more lives will be saved if more people are armed with Narcan.
“They cannot save themselves,” Walsh said. “Someone in the community will have to save them.”
For more information about Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina visit www.fentvic.org.
Families form united front against fentanyl deaths
Read the original article on the Wilson Times website.
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.
Continue reading “Families form united front against fentanyl deaths”Man connected to fentanyl overdose death of Wilson teen appears in court on Tuesday
Read the original article and watch the video on the WRAL TV5 News website.
The man accused of killing a teenager through fentanyl distribution appeared in court on Tuesday in Wilson County. Albert Wilson Green, 23, appeared before a judge on Tuesday. In May, authorities charged Green in connection to the 2023 death of a 17-year-old in Wilson.
The man accused of killing a teenager through fentanyl distribution appeared in court on Tuesday in Wilson County.
Albert Wilson Green, 23, appeared before a judge on Tuesday. In May, authorities charged Green in connection to the 2023 death of a 17-year-old in Wilson.
Several family members of victims of fentanyl poisoning were outside the courthouse on Tuesday, including Felicia Puente Castro, the mother of Jacob Castro.
“He was young … full of life,” she said.
Wilson police officers found Jacob Castro, who was 17 at the time, unresponsive and not breathing on Sept. 25, 2023, at a home on Hillcrest Drive. Castro died at the scene.
During their investigation, authorities determined Castro died as a result of fentanyl intoxication. Officers identified Green as the man responsible for selling Castro narcotics at the time of his death.
“He believed he was purchasing one thing, but he got fentanyl,” Castro’s mother said. “We believe that Albert Green knew what he was selling Jacob.”
In October 2023, Authorities arrested and charged Green with one count of selling and delivering schedule II-controlled substance related to Castro’s death. In May, authorities added a charge of felony death by distribution.
Green turned himself in on May 29. Nearly a dozen people arrived in a courtroom Tuesday to support Castro’s family as Green and his lawyer asked a judge for a trial.
“It’s hard to look at him and know that one person can cause so much damage,” Felicia Castro said. “Not only for me and Issac, but to our group and so many in our group behind us.”
One of those people supporting Felicia Castro was Barb Walsh, the executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. Walsh founded the group one year after her daughter passed away from drinking out of a water bottle with traces of fentanyl.
“It’s just like a chocolate chip cookie; we don’t know where the chocolate chips are going to end up,” Walsh said. “We don’t know where the fentanyl ends up in a pill. You could cut it in half. One person takes half [and] the other person takes half. One dies, one lives. It’s not worth the risk.”
North Carolina lawmakers passed legislation towards the end of 2023, which made it easier for law enforcement to charge and prosecute people suspected of distributing drugs linked to overdose deaths.
The law also no longer requires proof that drugs were sold to the victim in the case of a fatal overdose, just that the suspect supplied the drugs.
The law went into effect on Dec. 1.
While the law now makes it easier to prosecute drug dealers for overdose deaths, it still could take families months to determine whether a family member died from an overdose.
In June, WRAL Investigates received exclusive access to the chief medical examiner’s office and forensic toxicology lab. The lab said they have jurisdiction over all sudden, unexpected, violent and suspicious deaths in the entire state.
According to Chief Medical Examiner Michelle Aurelius, at least 15,000 family members are still waiting to learn the cause of death of a loved one, with Aurelius saying drug overdose deaths are surging.
“When we look back at 2016 for the fentanyl-positive deaths here in North Carolina, we’ve gone up 584%,” she said.
Felicia Castro said her son will always be with her, and she hopes she can give him a sense of justice with Green behind bars.
“Justice looks like [Green] spending time in prison for his crime,” she said. “Justice looks like no more young people dying from fentanyl … no more children.”
Green told WRAL News at the courthouse that he had no comment on his case. He is due in court again on Dec. 10.
Wilson County man charged in overdose death
Read the original article on the WITN News website.
WILSON COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – A Wilson County man is behind bars charged with an overdose death.
The Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office arrested 35-year-old Devonty Pitt and charged him with felony aggravated death by distribution of controlled substances.
The sheriff’s office began investigating back in May when deputies and detectives responded to the overdose death of 33-year-old Cierra Parker Barnes.
Investigators say it was determined that Pitt supplied the toxic narcotics that led to the fatal overdose.
Pitt has had several previous possession with intent to sell and distribute charges for substances such as heroin and cocaine and is also a convicted felon due to these charges.
He is in the Edgecombe County Detention Center under no bond.
Police charge man in fentanyl death
A Wilson man has been charged with felony death by distribution in a teenager’s death from fentanyl intoxication last year.
Albert Graham Green, 23, was initially arrested on Oct. 28 and charged with selling and delivering a Schedule II controlled substance in connection with the juvenile’s death, according to a release from Sgt. Eric McInerny, public information officer with the Wilson Police Department.
Green was given a $100,000 secured bond and placed in the Wilson County Detention Center.
On Tuesday, Green was charged with felony death by distribution.
Green turned himself in on Wednesday and was released on a $1 million unsecured bond.
McInerny said officers with the Wilson Police Department were dispatched to 1705 Hillcrest Drive for a report of an unconscious person at 8:20 p.m. on Sept. 25.
Dispatchers told police that a 17-year-old boy was unresponsive and not breathing, McInerny said. Officers arrived on scene and Wilson County EMS pronounced the juvenile deceased.
Continue reading “Police charge man in fentanyl death”