Fort Myers man gets more than 13 years in federal prison after overdose crash

Writer: Matthew Seaver
Published: Updated:
Eric Maurice Brown Jr.
Eric Maurice Brown Jr., 32. (Credit: Lee County Sheriff’s Office)

A Fort Myers man has been sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison for drug and gun possession charges.

According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, 32-year-old Eric Maurice Brown Jr. was arrested by Fort Myers police after Brown was in a single-car crash on April 27, 2021.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Brown was found unresponsive in the driver’s seat and was suffering from an apparent overdose. Medical personnel found two loaded guns on Brown while treating him for the overdose.

Officers with the Fort Myers Police Department searched Brown’s car and found a box with several rounds of ammo, a loaded magazine for one of the guns found in Brown’s possession, a digital scale, a box filled with clear plastic baggies, and additional plastic baggies containing various drugs.

According to the U.S Attorney’s Office, laboratory analysis confirmed that Brown had more than 50 grams of fentanyl, 32 grams of cocaine, and 13 grams of cocaine base in his car.

In January 2022, Brown pleaded guilty to charges of possession of fentanyl with the intent to distribute and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Brown was sentenced to 13 years and eight months in federal prison.

The U.S Attorney’s Office says Brown had previously been convicted of multiple felonies, including armed robbery and drug possession.

Brown was prosecuted in federal court as part of the joint federal, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods that the U.S Attorney’s Office says is part of an effort by the Department of Justice to reduce violent crime.

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