A Kentucky man who sold counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and caused the death of a teenager has been sentenced to 26 years and eight months in federal prison.
A police officer asked Akili O. Simpson to stop selling pills just two days before selling the deadly dose to a 17-year-old girl, according to court records.
Simpson, 23, of Danville, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death.
Simpson grew up in difficult circumstances, with little money and a father who was absent until he was 16 and died shortly after they reconnected, his attorney, Patrick F. Nash of Lexington, said in a sentencing memorandum.
He eventually started selling drugs as well as using drugs and became addicted, Nash said.
Simpson sold a pill to a girl on November 3, 2022, outside a store in Danville. She died of an overdose the same day in her parents’ basement, two months after her 17th birthday, according to court records.
Federal authorities said the pill Simpson sold the victim was marked to look like a pill containing oxycodone.
The dangers of fentanyl
Police and public health agencies have warned about the danger of fatal overdoses of pills that look like some type of painkiller or antidepressant but actually contain fentanyl, which is much more powerful than other opioid medications.
Fentanyl is cheap, so drug rings mix with other drugs or make pills from it to increase profits.
Fentanyl has been involved in most overdose deaths in Kentucky for several years.
“This case is a stark reminder of the dangers of illicit fentanyl, its prevalence in our communities and the devious methods of those who sell it,” said U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier IV in a press release. “These drugs are extremely dangerous and there are few ways to know for sure what a dealer might be selling.”
Detective asks drug dealer to stop selling drugs
Nash said in his sentencing memorandum that Simpson was “consumed with remorse” over the death. Nash asked for a 20-year sentence for Simpson.
However, the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Bradbury, said in a sentencing memorandum that Simpson was a large-scale drug dealer who admitted to buying 300 to 500 pills at a time to resell and knew they contained fentanyl.
Simpson sold the 17-year-old girl the pill that killed her just weeks after his release from probation when he was charged in state court with selling marijuana and possessing a gun, Bradbury said.
And just two days before the sale, Keith Addison, a detective with the Danville Police Department, told Simpson that he had heard that Simpson was selling drugs and asked him to stop before he was killed or killed someone else.
“And I said I’m not going to lie, I’ve sold fake pills before,” Simpson told Addison, recounting what he allegedly told others before. “I said, listen, I don’t do this anymore, for the simple fact that 80% is what you get, and if you overdose (expletive), you’re finished. And I left it alone. I’m not going to lie.
Addison recorded the exchange on her body camera and Bradbury included it in the court records.
Six months later, police arrested Simpson after he sold 57 pills for $400 to a woman outside a store in Danville.
Bradbury sought a sentence of between 272 and 293 months for Simpson, but Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced him to 320 months in prison.
Reeves sentenced Simpson on May 31 in federal court in Lexington.
