CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — Three people have been taken into custody in connection with the drug-related death of a Cumberland County man in 2022.
The arrests come after a joint investigation by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) special agents and the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office into the death of 32-year-old Christopher Hale, of Crossville, in July 2022, according to officials.
Authorities said they determined that Hale died from the combined effects of fentanyl and ethanol. Investigators later identified the Crossville man who provided the drugs to the victim, as well as two other individuals who provided the drugs to that man.
Roughly 18 months after Hale's death, on Jan. 8, the Cumberland County Grand Jury returned indictments charging 61-year-old Michael Daignault, 35-year-old Jerrica Hayes, and 77-year-old Frazier Norris, according to the TBI. All three of them have since been booked into the Cumberland County Jail.
Officials said Hayes and Norris were both arrested on Jan. 10 and charged with four counts of manufacture, delivery, or sale of a Schedule II controlled substance (fentanyl). Their bonds were set at $70,000.
As for Daignault, he was arrested in North Carolina and extradited to Tennessee on Tuesday, Jan. 23, authorities reported. He faces charges for one count of second-degree murder, one count of manufacture or sale of Schedule II fentanyl, and one count of manufacture or delivery of Schedule II fentanyl, with a bond set at $500,000.
According to Tennessee’s death by distribution law, an individual can be charged with second-degree murder if they sell or give someone fentanyl or carfentanil, either alone or in combination with any controlled substance (per the Tennessee Drug Control Act of 1989), and that person dies because of those drugs.
When a person is charged with death by distribution, the prosecutor does not have to prove the individual acted with malice. The prosecutor only needs to prove the person supplied someone with the drugs that killed them.
from WKRN News 2 https://ift.tt/gpzFrO6
No comments: