Man who sold fentanyl in child death sentenced
A Whitfield County man who distributed an illicit fentanyl pill linked to the overdose death of a minor has been sentenced to prison.
Devin Wayne Crawford, 19, formerly a resident of Davenport Road in Dalton, was sentenced earlier this month to 10 years in prison followed by 10 years probation after he pleaded guilty to the charge of second-degree murder, according to a release from the Whitfield County government.
“Crawford’s distribution of the fentanyl caused the child cruel and excessive pain when she overdosed on the substance, and so second-degree murder was the most accurate crime to describe what Crawford did to this child,” Ben Kenemer, Conasauga Judicial Circuit district attorney, said in the written release.
The Conasauga Judicial Circuit is comprised of Whitfield and Murray counties.
Kenemer represented the state in the case against Crawford. The district attorney agreed to dismiss the charges of felony murder and the distribution of fentanyl in exchange for Crawford’s plea to second-degree murder.
Superior Court Judge Scott Minter presided over the case. The judge was told by Kenemer that the victim’s family approved the plea recommendation to avoid the trauma of going through a trial.
After the overdose death, an investigation
by the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office found that Crawford distributed a fentanyl pill to a minor in July 2022.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that the federal Drug Enforcement Agency says is 100 times more potent than heroin.
According to the Sheriff’s Office incident report about the death, the mother of the girl who died of the overdose learned from her daughter’s friend that the two girls had taken what they thought was Percocet, a brand name of the prescription pain-killer oxycodone, on the evening of July 29, 2022. The next morning, the mother found her daughter unconscious and unresponsive.
“Drug abuse and overdosing on fentanyl is a real danger to everyone in our community,” Kenemer said in the release. “I appreciate the efforts of law enforcement to ensure that Crawford was held accountable for his actions.”
In 2021, there were 15 opioid-involved overdose deaths in Whitfield County. In 2020, there were 10 opioid-involved deaths in Whitfield County, according to statistics from the Georgia Department of Public Health.
The federal Food and Drug Administration reported nearly 102,000 fatal overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending October 2022, mainly driven by synthetic opioids like illicit fentanyl.