CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Charleston man will spend more than 11 years in prison after selling a mixture of fentanyl that resulted in a person’s fatal overdose.
Christoper Tyler, 27, previously admitted to selling a Charleston woman the mixture, a substance both thought was heroin. The transaction happened in August 2018.
The woman went to Tyler’s Glover Street residence to purchase the drug. The two later texted into the early morning hours. Tyler called the woman’s phone the next day and was told she had died.
The West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed the substance was a mix of fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl; fentanyl is a schedule II controlled substance, while acetyl fentanyl is a schedule I substance.
U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart said he met with the parents of the victim, a meeting he said “broke my heart to hear, to see and to feel their pain.”
“It’s a pain that will never go away and no time will ever numb. All I can do as a United States Attorney is to fight for justice for every mom and dad in a similar circumstance,” he added.
Tyler was sentenced to 135 months in prison.
Emotional day. Met the mom and dad of a beautiful young lady who died from a fentanyl overdose. Her mom courageously recounted “that morning” to me. My heart breaks for all the moms and dads I embrace in their pain. Nothing numbs it. The pain is real. And for me too.
— US Attorney Mike Stuart (@USAttyStuart) August 6, 2019