Sentencing for unlawful act manslaughter arising from the accused's trafficking of cocaine laced with fentanyl, which caused the death of the purchaser's brother.
The accused, a cocaine dealer, sold what he believed to be cocaine, but the substance was a mixture of cocaine and fentanyl.
The court found that trafficking in dangerous illegal drugs for profit, resulting in death, engages the paramount sentencing objectives of deterrence and denunciation.
After reviewing the sentencing range of three to eight years for drug-trafficking-predicated manslaughter, the court imposed a mid-range sentence of five years, less presentence custody credit, considering the accused's lengthy criminal record as an aggravating factor and the absence of intentional fentanyl trafficking as a mitigating factor.
