Charging drug dealers with murder is harder than it seems in Palm Beach County

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A suspect accused of selling a fatal dose of cocaine and oxycodone to a 31-year-old man is now charged with first-degree murder.

Isaiah Delgado, 24, of Boynton Beach is being represented by the public defender for the county.

CBS12 News looked into his criminal history and nothing speaks to a violent temperament, but he’s now facing a life sentence.

Some defense attorneys and even the state attorneys’ office are skeptical that these charges will stick.

Lawmakers amended existing laws to keep drug dealers off the street, but it’s been a hard road so far.

Detectives say back in February, Delgado sold cocaine and oxycodone to 31-year-old Kalev Kangro who died hours after taking the drugs.

An autopsy report revealed that Kangro died from a fentanyl and cocaine overdose.

Last year, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg told CBS12 news 95% of opioid overdose deaths in Palm Beach County involve fentanyl – and cases where they charge a drug dealer with murder is rare.

“The hardest part about charging someone with murder for dealing fentanyl is because the end user who ends up dying often has multiple drug dealers on speed dial. You gotta be able to trace that exact batch of fentanyl that killed the person back to that drug dealer,” Aronberg explained.

Court records reveal after Kangro’s death, police looked at his phone and spoke to his wife to learn the identity of his dealer.

See also: Combatting Addiction: Rehab facilities concerned by emergence of highly lethal ‘ISO’

Then, undercover detectives staged a series of buys over the next five months.

CBs12’s Victoria De Cardenas asked defense attorney Jack Fleischman if the 1st-degree murder charge is likely to stick, then why are prosecutors quick to use the relatively new Florida statute that enables them to do this – when many such cases have fallen apart.

“Why do you think that the prosecutors automatically go to first-degree murder by drug distribution if it’s so difficult to prove?” asked Victoria.

“Well, I believe that – I don’t want to use the word showboating – but I think the government selfishly from their perspective wants to take these charges – these types of crimes seriously,” said Fleischman.

Fleischman has defended cases just like this and he said some jurors believe in personal responsibility – that a person who overdoses has made poor choices and that over-charging a drug dealer is not fair.

Fleischman added following the path of the drugs is tricky, because before the accused dealer sold the drugs, where did he get them?

Drugs change hands so many times—Fleischman says, there are so many loose ends— investigators don’t know everything.

“They have a suspect in mind, but that suspect may not have distributed, or they may not be able to prove that that suspect distributed the dose that killed the user.,” said Fleischman.

Delgado is sitting in the Palm Beach County Jail with no bond.

He’s due back in court next month.

We tried to get the State Attorney’s Office to comment on this story, but no one could speak with us.