May 10—THOMASVILLE — A High Point man who was charged in connection with the 2021 overdose death of a Thomasville man has pleaded guilty to death by distribution.
On May 28, 2021, officers with the Thomasville Police Department responded to a residence on James Avenue and found Jacob Fields, 35, dead. An autopsy report revealed that Fields died of a fentanyl overdose.
After a lengthy investigation, detectives identified Larento Valentino Grady Jr., 30, as the person who provided the fentanyl.
On June 13, 2022, High Point police officers assisted Thomasville police in finding and arresting Grady at his High Point residence without incident. Grady was indicted by a Davidson County grand jury in July 2022 on one count of second-degree murder and one count of death by distribution.
On Wednesday, Grady pleaded guilty to death by distribution before Davidson County Superior Court Judge Lori Hamilton as his trial was scheduled to begin. Grady was sentenced to a minimum prison sentence of eight years and three months and a maximum sentence of 11 years, according to Thomasville police.
Grady’s criminal history includes being one of three people arrested more than seven years ago in the homicide of Army-Navy store owner Jack Little of High Point.
Little was stabbed to death at his Whetstone Army-Navy Surplus store on S. Main Street during a robbery on February 11, 2017. He was 65 years old, and his store had been a popular spot in town for decades as a place to buy guns, hunting knives and outdoor equipment.
Kemione Shafic Grady, Larento Grady’s brother, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November 2020 in Guilford County Superior Court. Kemione Grady, 22 years old at the time, was sentenced to a minimum sentence of 13 years and a maximum sentence of 16 years and eight months in prison.
Larento Grady was arrested along with a 28-year-old woman. Both were charged with being accessories after the fact and possession of stolen property.
