Hillsboro Sheriff promotes new law targeting juvenile drug dealers

TAMPA – A year ago, two young men bought what they believed to be Percosett pills from drug dealers. I overdose both. One of them, 17-year-old Devon Ramos, has passed away.

His death was attributed to the effects of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid comparable to alcohol as the country’s most lethal substance in the past decade. Hillsboro Sheriff’s Investigators learned that the person who sold the drugs to him is also 17 years old.

Devons is the story that Hillsboro County Sheriff Chad Cronister shared at a press conference Wednesday morning, highlighting recent changes to the law.

“If he had used a gun, knife or other means to take someone’s life, he would have faced murder charges,” Chronister said of the person who sold Devon. “The dealer couldn’t hold him accountable just because he was a boy.”

Florida’s first-degree murder law long includes a provision that allows drug dealers to be charged if users receive a fatal overdose. The law was rarely invoked until recently, when the opioid crisis caused a surge in accidental overdose deaths along with demands of accountability.

However, the law specified that it applies only to people over the age of 18.

The sheriff said he attended a funeral in Devon last year. He met his mother, Amy Olmeda, and promised to pursue changes in the law.

That promise came to fruition at this year’s legislative meeting. Senate Bill 618 allows a juvenile defendant to face three-degree murder charges when giving fentanyl to the deceased. They are penalising up to 15 years in prison.

The bill passed Congress with almost no point in support and was signed into law last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

At a press conference Wednesday, Olmeda described his son as a young man who enjoyed making music, playing basketball and wandering around with his friends. He was a “kind soul” with a “huge heart,” she said.

Olmeda said she was devastated when she learned that the person who gave him the deadly drug could not be charged. She praised Chronister for driving legal change.

“I never realize how much this means to me and my family,” she said. “I don’t want to see another mother going through what I’ve been through.”

State Sens. Danny Burgess and Traci Coster shepherd the bill through the state legislature. The law will take effect on July 1st.

Hillsboro State Attorney Susie Lopez said the office has filed similar cases against adults, saying he believes the new law will prevent similar tragedy.

“It would serve as a deterrent for the young drug dealers out there who think that age is a shield,” she said. “‘If you’re under the age of 18, you won’t be charged.’ That’s not the case anymore. ”

Many adults are charged under laws that allow murder charges for fatal overdose, but in such cases it is difficult to prosecute. The state must prove that the accused intentionally gave the victim a drug and that the same substance caused the death.

In such cases, the ju judge tends to support manslaughter rather than manslaughter. Last year, a notable exception occurred in the Anthony Mansfield Tampa incident.

Ry judges were found guilty of first-degree murder for selling fentanyl to the 27-year-old Quellown “Kair” Tally, who later died. Mansfield, 47, received a mandatory prison penalty for life.

Several other overdose-related murders are pending at Hillsboro Court. Some of them also involve the distribution of fake Percoset tablets.

Last June, Hillsboro prosecutors accused 21-year-old Bailey Jacobs of the murder in the death of 19-year-old Eric Shelzer.

Federal prosecutors also filed the case under laws prohibiting the distribution of illegal drugs that lead to death.

Last June, US lawyers in Tampa charged four men with charges related to the death of a University of South Florida student. Again, the victim was given what, according to court records, actually said to be a Percoset tablet containing fentanyl.