Fans dance during the third day of Ultra Music Festival on March 30, 2025, at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami.
Alie Skowronski
askowronski@miamiherald.com
We’ve all made questionable decisions in our 20s — drinking too much or experimenting with drugs — and most of us lived to tell the story.
In my 20s, I went to a music festival, Vans Warped Tour, and made some decisions that would’ve made my parents shake their heads.
But what happens when that decision becomes a fatal mistake? What happens when a 20-something buys drugs from someone at a music festival, takes them and dies? Who’s responsible?
In a Miami-Dade County case from last year’s Ultra Music Festival, the person who sold the drugs may be considered responsible — and charged with first-degree murder.
Charlene Forti is accused of selling MDMA — commonly known as ecstasy or Molly — to 24-year-old Jenniha Le at Ultra. Le died. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle held a news conference this week to announce the charges.
It’s a heartbreaking situation. But charging Forti with first-degree murder feels like a stretch and raises serious questions about whether this law should have been passed and what it’s meant to address.
Le was an adult. She made a decision to seek out and purchase drugs. It was a risk, and tragically, it cost her her life. In a free society, adults are allowed to make dangerous decisions. But personal responsibility has to play a role.
None of this absolves Forti. If she did sell illegal drugs, that deserves punishment. But should she be facing first-degree murder charges?
Traditionally, that charge has been reserved for premeditated acts. Florida law allows a person who supplies controlled substances that lead to another’s death to be charged with first-degree murder; prosecutors don’t have to prove Forti intended to kill anyone.
Charging her may satisfy the law. But it does not resolve the broader question of whether this charge fits the conduct.
At a press conference earlier this week, Rundle was explicit, “You don’t have to prove that you intended that person to die when you gave them the pills.”
The law is clear, but clarity isn’t the same as application.
As Nova Southeastern University law professor Megan Chaney told WPLG Local 10 News, this charge isn’t usually applied in cases like this.
“It’s not an odd thing that prosecutors would pursue the death penalty or a capital felony for somebody who did not intend to kill,” she said, “but it is very rarely applied to the distribution of drugs.”
“I think it’s possible that the Legislature was looking at all the fentanyl cases,” she added.
That context shouldn’t be overlooked.
A law targeting large-scale traffickers pushing lethal amounts of fentanyl into communities may justify the most severe charges. Applying the same standard to what seems to be a small, one-on-one exchange at a festival is a different matter.
It’s also hard to ignore the timing. Ultra Music Festival comes back to Miami next week, and Rundle is sending a clear message: drugs won’t be tolerated and consequences could be severe.
The charge shouldn’t be driven by the news cycle or calendar. Even in the most heartbreaking cases, that distinction is worth defending.
Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com