Hagerstown Man Sentenced Following Fatal Overdose Death

The victim was a Frederick man.

 

 

Baltimore, Md (KM) A Hagerstown man who admitted that he sold heroin to another man who died from an overdose is going to federal prison. Joseph King, 25, was sentenced on Monday in US District Court in Baltimore to 10  years incarceration for distribution of heroin and furnanyl fentanyl resulting in serious bodily injury to an individual. . He will be placed on three-years supervised released when he gets out.

The US Attorney’s Office for Maryland says King admitted to police that he sold heroin twice  to Nicholas Perry of Frederick in June, 2016.. According to his plea agreement,  King told police that on June 1st, he distributed  heroin to Perry on two separate occasions at a gas station in Hagerstown. The second batch King distributed  was laced with furanyl fentanyl. After using the second batch, Perry suffered an overdose. Medics were able to revive him by administering two doses of Narcan before taking him to the hospital

Perry left the hospital against the advice of medical professionals. The next day, he died at his home in Frederick. Investigators confiscated some folded paper with heroin at his residence, and a small packet of heroin from a dumpster.

The Maryland State Medical Examiner ruled that the cause of Perry’s death was mixed drug intoxication, specifically from heroin, fentanyl and despropiony fentanyl.

In his admission to law enforcement, The US Attorney’s Office says King said he distributed heroin and heroin laced with furanyl fentanyl, about 2.3 grams,  to a cooperating individual between June 3rd and June 13th, 2016.

By Kevin McManus