Hillsborough sheriff touts new law that targets juvenile drug dealers

Yahoo

2 days ago

TAMPA — A year ago, two young men bought what they believed were Percocet pills from a drug dealer. Both of them overdosed. One of them, 17-year-old Devin Ramos, died.
His death was attributed to the effects of fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that in the last decade has come to rival alcohol as the nation's deadliest substance. Hillsborough sheriff's investigators learned that the person who sold him the drugs was also 17 — too young to be charged with murder under state laws.
Devin's was the story that Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister shared in a Wednesday morning news conference that highlighted a recent change to the law, which aims to hold young dealers accountable for the deaths of drug users.
'If he had used a gun, a knife or any other means to take someone's life, he would have faced murder charges,' Chronister said of the person who sold Devin the drugs. 'This dealer, simply because he was a juvenile, could not be held accountable.'
Florida's first-degree murder law has long included a provision that allows drug dealers to be charged when users suffer a fatal overdose. That law was seldom invoked until recent years, when the opioid crisis created a surge in accidental overdose deaths along with demands for accountability.
But the law specified that it applied only to people older than 18.
The sheriff said he attended Devin's funeral last year. He met his mother, Amy Olmeda, and promised he would pursue a change in the law.
That promise became a reality in this year's legislative session. Senate Bill 618 allows juvenile defendants to face a third-degree murder charge in cases where they give fentanyl to someone who dies. It carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
The bill passed the Legislature with near-unanimous support and was signed into law last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
At Wednesday's news conference, Olmeda spoke of her son as a young man who enjoyed making music, playing basketball and hanging out with his friends. He was a 'kind soul' with a 'huge heart,' she said.
Olmeda said she was devastated when she learned that the person who gave him the deadly pills could not be prosecuted. She praised Chronister for pushing for the change in law.
'You will never understand how much this means to me and my family,' she said. 'I don't want to see another mother ever go through what I went through.'
State Sen. Danny Burgess and Rep. Traci Koster shepherded the bill through the state Legislature. The law takes effect July 1.
Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez, whose office has prosecuted similar cases against adults, said she believes the new law will prevent similar tragedies.
'It will act as a deterrent to the young drug dealers who are out there who think that age is a shield,' she said. ''I can't get charged if I'm under the age of 18.' That is not the case anymore.'
While many adults have faced charges under the law allowing murder charges for fatal overdoses, such cases are tricky to prosecute. The state must prove that the accused knowingly gave the victim the drugs and that the same substance caused the death.
Juries tend to favor lesser convictions for manslaughter, rather than murder, in such cases. A notable exception occurred last year in the Tampa case of Anthony Mansfield.
A jury found Mansfield guilty of first-degree murder for selling fentanyl to 27-year-old Querraun 'Que' Talley, who later died. Mansfield, 47, received a mandatory penalty of life in prison.
Several other overdose-related murder cases remain pending in Hillsborough court. Some of them also involve the distribution of fake Percocet pills.
Last June, Hillsborough prosecutors charged Baylee Jacobs, 21, with murder in the death of Eric Schertzer, 19, who died after purchasing a Percocet pill that actually contained fentanyl.
Federal prosecutors have also brought cases under laws that prohibit distribution of illegal drugs resulting in death.
U.S. attorneys in Tampa last June indicted four men on charges related to the death of a University of South Florida student. In that case, too, the victim was given what were said to be Percocet pills which actually contained fentanyl, according to court records.