Fort Worth police to ‘aggressively’ pursue arrests in fentanyl deaths with new state law
Just three months after Senate Bill 645 went into effect, the Fort Worth Police Department arrested a suspect in Tarrant County’s first murder prosecution in a fentanyl poisoning death
SB 645 was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June and went into effect in September. The Texas law makes fentanyl distributors and sellers eligible for murder prosecution if they can be linked to a fatal overdose.
Now, Fort Worth police say Tarrant County can expect to see more prosecutions in fatal fentanyl poisonings as the department is seeing an increase in cases.
Addressing a rise in fentanyl cases
According to Sgt. Benjamin Scott Banes, Fort Worth police responded to an average of three fatal fentanyl poisonings on a weekly basis in 2023.
Before SB 645 took effect, Fort Worth police could only charge suspects with serious bodily injury in drug cases, specifically in fentanyl poisonings. But Banes says fentanyl has “changed the game” and goes as far as describing a rise in fentanyl cases as an epidemic.
“This is basically a reaction to an unprecedented situation,” Banes told the Star-Telegram. “With the new law, it finally gives law enforcement something to work with.”
While law enforcement now have SB 645, police still have to work through the process that allows them to arrest a suspect on a murder charge in connection to fentanyl poisonings.
Banes says that waiting for toxicology reports — which can take months to generate — and an autopsy report from the medical examiner’s office can prolong efforts by police to enforce murder charges.
But the police department is not alone in seeking justice for those who have suffered from or died from fentanyl.
“Everybody’s kind of behind the eight ball with this thing. We’re talking about big bureaucratic entities like the [Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s] office,” Banes said. “The learning curve that we all gotta go through to figure out: how do we respond to this?”
Banes spoke proudly of the police department for quickly turning around its first fentanyl-murder arrest.
“You gotta realize also that the law just came into effect for us in September,” Banes said. “When you look at the turnaround time on toxicology results, medical examiners, hospital stuff, you’re talking 30 to 60 days, and now look where we are.”
On Dec. 14, a grand jury indicted Jacob Lindsay, 46, on a murder charge in connection to the death of 26-year-old Brandon Harrison, who died due to fentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Harrison was found dead in September in his bed at a Fort Worth sober living facility, Oxford House-McCart, on Huntwick Drive, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. He had moved into the facility, which houses men who are in recovery from substance abuse, about two weeks before he died.
Officers searched Harrison’s pockets and found a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and a small methamphetamine rock, according to the affidavit.
Investigators also found a thread of text messages between Harrison and a drug dealer, later confirmed to be Lindsay.
In the messages, the men agreed to meet outside Hulen Mall at a restaurant where Harrison worked as a waiter. Lindsay would sell Harrison meth and two “percs,” which is street slang for the counterfeit pills that contain fentanyl, the affidavit states.
Lindsay initially was taken into custody the day after Harrison’s death on a charge of manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, according to court records. Pills found in Lindsay’s car at the time of his arrest tested positive in a field test for fentanyl, according to the affidavit.
District attorney creates unit to prosecute fentanyl deaths
The district attorney’s office Narcotics Unit, along with the police department, is also preparing to prosecute more murder charges when fentanyl poisoning deaths arise, Banes says.
On Nov. 20, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells announced the office’s new unit to focus on cases involving narcotics, including fentanyl.
Three prosecutors, including Assistant District Attorneys Michael Ferry and Sarah Bruner, have been assigned to the unit.
“If you deal fentanyl in Tarrant County, we are coming after you,” Sorrells wrote in the announcement. “Fentanyl is addictive and deadly.”
Because fentanyl is cheaper to manufacture than other opioids, some dealers substitute it for or mix it in with other drugs, sometimes without the knowledge of the person buying it, Sorrells said. It is available as powder, pills and liquid.
About 300 people have died from overdoses this year, according to Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office data the district attorney noted in the announcement. The data include deaths from fentanyl and other substances, some of which occurred outside Tarrant County. The medical examiner’s office also handles autopsies for Denton, Johnson and Parker counties.
As the police department continues to work closely with the DA’s officer, Banes is confident that Fort Worth police officers will heavily enforce the new law.
“Our fentanyl response team is a lot more aggressive, I think, than a lot of the other ones that I’ve heard of,” Banes said. “And we’re working it on the streets.”
