Should a fentanyl dealer whose customer dies in an intentional overdose face the same prison time as a dealer whose customer dies accidentally?
Maybe, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday.
In a split 5-2 decision, the justices found that a Colorado man who sold fentanyl to a customer who then died by suicide in an intentional overdose could present evidence of that suicide to jurors as a defense against Colorado’s new, higher penalties for fentanyl dealing that leads to a person’s death.
Jurors must ultimately decide whether the customer’s suicide should mitigate the seller’s punishment, Chief Justice Monica Márquez wrote for the majority.
“We are not persuaded that a reasonable person who distributes fentanyl should, as a matter of law, always foresee the possibility that a purchaser will consume extraordinary amounts of fentanyl with the intent to die by suicide,” Márquez wrote. “True, a purchaser may overdose by accidentally consuming more fentanyl than they intended to consume. But when a purchaser consumes large amounts of fentanyl with the intent to die by suicide, they make ‘a voluntary and willful choice.’ ”
The justices ruled against El Paso County prosecutors, who had sought to block evidence of the victim’s suicide from court altogether.
The case involves a 26-year-old Colorado Springs man who died in August 2023 from a massive overdose of fentanyl. The man sent his girlfriend a suicidal text before he died, and the El Paso County coroner ruled his death a suicide in part because he took such a large dose of fentanyl.
Police later alleged that Patrick Beverly, 34, sold about $90 worth of fentanyl pills to the man who died. Beverly was charged with distributing less than four grams of fentanyl — which typically carries a potential sentence of between two and four years in prison. But because the 26-year-old died, Beverly faced an increased prison sentence of between eight and 32 years.
State lawmakers upped the prison sentence for fentanyl distribution resulting in death in 2022, allowing for a longer prison term when a defendant’s distribution of fentanyl is the direct cause of the victim’s death.
Beverly’s attorneys argued that he could not have anticipated the Colorado Springs man’s suicide, and that the man’s suicide meant that Beverly’s distribution of fentanyl did not directly cause his death.
The majority of justices agreed that the victim’s suicidal intent could be relevant to whether Beverly’s sale of fentanyl directly resulted in the victim’s death, and ruled that jurors should be shown the evidence of the man’s suicide so that they can make their own decision on relevance.
Justices Brian Boatright and Maria Berkenkotter dissented, arguing that selling illicit fentanyl is inherently dangerous and potentially deadly, and that the victim’s suicide was irrelevant to the law.
“Given the danger inherent in illegal fentanyl use, the risk of death… was foreseeable at the time of distribution, regardless of whether the death was an intentional suicide or an accidental overdose,” Boatright wrote in the dissent. “Selling fentanyl obtained on the black market is the equivalent of selling someone a gun and bullets, knowing that the purchaser plans to repeatedly play Russian Roulette. Death of the person buying the gun and bullets, under those circumstances, is not only foreseeable, but virtually inevitable.”
Beverly’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.
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