Will first-degree murder charges hold up in court for a fentanyl overdose?

Reporter: Jolena Esperto
Published: Updated:
fentanyl
Anthony Hicks mugshot. CREDIT: COLLIER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Gut-wrenching and alarming visuals show the impact of what just a small amount of fentanyl can do to someone.

Fentanyl is filling the streets and taking the lives of people who have no idea they are taking the drug.

WINK News reported on a grand jury indicting Anthony Hicks for first-degree capital murder. Hicks is accused of playing a part in the overdose of a 25-year-old woman.

Detectives say Hicks sold her what she thought was Percocet, and unknown to her, it was laced with fentanyl.

State attorney Amira Fox made a promise to people who deal the dangerous drugs.

“If I can prove it, and you sell or distribute a controlled substance to somebody, and it kills them or is a substantial factor in their death, I can and I will prosecute you,” said Fox.

Hicks is the second person locally charged with first-degree murder for playing a part in a drug overdose.

Typically when you hear first-degree murder charges you think of premeditated intent to kill. In this particular case, investigators say Hicks sold a young woman a deadly fentanyl pill that she thought was Percocet, and that pill killed her.

WINK News spoke with a legal expert who said in this case, you don’t have to prove intent to kill, and this is all part of a crackdown on the fentanyl epidemic.

Twenty-five-year-old Mackenzie Wolldridge of Addison, New York, passed away on Oct. 26 in Fort Myers.

According to the state attorney and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, she didn’t know she was taking fentanyl. She thought she was buying a Percocet.

Hicks, 22, who sold her the pill, is charged with first-degree murder.

“Don’t have to prove intent other than he did sell or deliver. Doesn’t even have to sell, let’s say he sells it and shares with his friend, then his friend dies as long as they can prove a causation of the death, they can be charged with first-degree murder,” said Scott Moorey, a criminal defense attorney.

Legal expert Moorey explained it doesn’t matter if Hicks planned to kill Wooldridge. If it’s proved he did by selling her fentanyl, then that’s murder in the first degree.

“We will not tolerate those that peddle deadly poison in Lee County,” said Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.

“Understand, the sheriff and our lead prosecutor have made it very clear that they’re going to prosecute people to the fullest extent of the law, and the law’s changed at the first of the year,” said Moorey. “We now can be charged with first-degree murder if you deliver a substance that causes the death, specifically fentanyl.”

Hicks is now in the Lee County Jail awaiting his next court appearance.

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