The defendant linked to the man’s overdose death was charged in the inquiry some months after the man’s death.
Deputies responded to a complaint regarding a death in January, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, which announced on Monday that the investigation had begun.
Antonio Deangelo Heck, 42, of Robeson County, was taken into custody by the sheriff’s office on Friday.
According to the sheriff’s office, Heck provided the drugs that resulted in the fatal overdose, according to their investigation. The charge against him was distribution by death.
Deputies claimed they observed a change in his speech as he was being booked at the magistrate’s office and that he was attempting to ingest a plastic bag containing cocaine.
Heck is said to have spit it out after investigators convinced him to do so. According to the sheriff’s office, they later discovered that the bag included 12 grams of cocaine.
Later, Heck faced charges for having a controlled drug on the jail grounds. Heck has no bond and was being held at the Lee County Jail.
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North Carolina’s Death by Distribution Law
The Death by Distribution law (SB189) in North Carolina was amended in the fall of 2023. Drug traffickers and those whose narcotics cause others to die may face harsher jail sentences under the amended measure, which classifies death by distribution as a Class C felony.
Prosecutors no longer need to demonstrate a transaction; they can now just charge those individuals with delivering the drugs.
