For the first time, Tarrant County prosecutors are taking advantage of a new state law that allows them to seek murder charges against anyone who provides a deadly dose of fentanyl to another person.
A grand jury has indicted Jacob Lindsay, 46, for murder, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release Thursday. Prosecutors say Lindsay gave Brandon Harrison, 26, the fentanyl that killed him. Harrison died of fentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity on Sept. 18, Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s records show.
Tarrant County’s new Narcotics Unit will prosecute the case. That’s a three-person team designed to go after fentanyl makers and distributors with “the stiffest sentences and fines possible.”
Narcotics Unit member Michael Ferry previously told KERA that the unit will focus on major cases, and prosecutors won’t use the new fentanyl murder law against everyone.
"If you're talking about a boyfriend giving a pill to a girlfriend, that's probably not a case that's appropriate for the murder charge,” he said.
At least 25 other states have similar laws, which are called drug-induced homicide laws. Texas’ version was written by State Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, and passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, The Texas Tribune reported.
Critics of drug-induced homicide laws say there’s no evidence that criminal prosecution reduces the supply of and demand for drugs.
This is not the first fentanyl murder charge in Texas under the new law.
In Montgomery County, outside Houston, law enforcement arrested James Carter-Smith Jr. in November and charged him with murder for supplying a deadly dose of fentanyl to an unnamed person.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on Twitter @MirandaRSuarez.
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