Jury, after deliberating less than 1 hour, convicts drug dealer in overdose death
A Hamilton County jury found a woman guilty of second-degree murder in a trial the district attorney described as a first of its kind in the county.
Morgan Nicole Copeland, 33, was arrested and charged with seconddegree murder after selling fentanyl to 39-year-old Nicholas Jackson, who died March 24, 2018.
The three- day trial wrapped up with less than an hour of jury deliberations and found Copeland guilty of second- degree murder for knowingly selling Jackson fentanyl and causing his death, according to a Thursday news release.
“When considering an overdose death, the community may not typically think of a second-degree murder charge,” Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp said in the release. “However, the legislative intent was very clear with this statute. In Tennessee, if you sell or deliver illegal drugs to a person and that person dies as a result of those drugs, you can be found guilty of murder.”
According to her indictment, Copeland “unlawfully and intentionally” sold fentanyl, which “was the proximate cause of the death” of Jackson.
In 2018, legislators passed a law targeting drug dealers selling fentanyl, allowing for a second- degree murder conviction for those found guilty of the “killing of another that results from the unlawful distribution of any Schedule I or Schedule II drug, when the drug is the proximate cause of the death of the user,” according to the law.
Fentanyl is a Schedule II drug and is 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Copeland now faces 15 to 60 years in prison, according to Tennessee law.
“My hope is that this conviction is a wake- up call for drug dealers all across our county,” Wamp said. “We will continue to prosecute under this statute, and we will continue to focus our efforts on sending dangerous drug dealers to prison.”
Copeland will appear before Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Amanda Dunn on May 2 to be sentenced.