STUART, Fla. –You will only see footage of the arrest anywhere else on the internet if you come to CBS12 News because the Martin County deputies have made a historic murder arrest involving illicit substances.
Kevin Whitehouse is the first individual in the annals of the county’s history to be apprehended and charged in connection with a fatality that was allegedly caused by fentanyl.
“We have adequate probable cause to indicate that Mr. Whitehouse supplied fentanyl to our victim, who subsequently died from it,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder announced to the public on Monday. “Our investigation has shown that Mr.
Whitehouse, who is 41 years old, went to the sheriff’s office on Friday to pick up his mobile phone, which Sheriff Snyder claims they had gotten from his arrest earlier this year for driving with a suspended license and possession of drug paraphernalia – before they arrested him once again.
Whitehouse had been arrested earlier this year for driving with a suspended license and possession of drug paraphernalia.
“He was coming in here in what he thought was ostensibly to pick up property that we had impounded as the result of a previous arrest and then when he came here, he found out that there was more to it and that he was being arrested for first-degree murder,” the sheriff explained.
“He was coming in here in his mind ostensibly to pick up property that we had impounded as the result of a previous arrest.”
Anyone who sells fentanyl to a person who later dies as a result of using it could be prosecuted for first-degree murder under a law that was passed in 2017 and signed into law by Rick Scott, who was the governor of Florida at the time.
In this particular case, Samantha Nell, who was 28 years old and had recently bought fentanyl from Whitehouse, went dead in January. The sheriff claims that she died only 26 hours after making the transaction.
Nell was discovered by her daughter, who had gone to wake up her grandma at around one in the morning in January, saying “I could not wake mommy.” This information is according to the investigative report that was completed by the Sheriff’s Office.
In a different turn of events, however, Sheriff Snyder said that Whitehouse admitted during interrogation that he had a connection of some kind with the victim.
“He said that he loves her, which is hard to imagine that, you know, in a rational world, selling poison to someone you love,” Snyder said. “In a rational world, it is hard to imagine that.” “We do not know what her perception of her relationship with him was,” she may have said.
Sheriff Snyder anticipates that this will not be the last case with a fentanyl dealer being prosecuted in connection with a fatal overdose in the county.
“This is significant here in Martin County that will at least send the message: if you sell this poison, fentanyl, to somebody and they die, if we can, we’ll be coming after you,” he remarked. “If you sell this poison, fentanyl, to somebody and they die, we’ll be coming for you.”
