A Tampa man was arrested Monday on a murder charge in connection to another man’s fatal overdose earlier this year.
Tampa police arrested Jeffrey Lee Trudeau Jr., 45, after determining he sold fentanyl to 36-year-old Anthony Michael Wilson hours before his death, court records state. The charge, first-degree murder resulting from the distribution of controlled substance, is a capital felony punishable by life in prison or the death penalty.
The investigation began about 9:45 p.m. Jan. 20, when a woman called 911 after finding Wilson unresponsive in his apartment on North Hyaleah Road, according to a motion Hillsborough prosecutors filed this week seeking to keep Trudeau in jail while his case is pending.
Paramedics arrived minutes later and were not able to revive Wilson.
Police seized as evidence Wilson’s phone, a syringe and a baggie with a powdery substance. An autopsy determined Wilson died from intoxication by fentanyl and methamphetamine. The Hillsborough Medical Examiner told detectives that the amount of fentanyl in Wilson’s system would have been fatal without the methamphetamine, the motion states.
Text messages found on Wilson’s found showed messages exchanged with Trudeau’s phone in the six days prior to Wilson’s death discussing drug sales, according to the motion.
“If you need lmk,” Trudeau texted to Wilson about 2:20 p.m. on Jan. 20., the motion states.
Wilson texted his address to Trudeau, who then provided updates on the time of his arrival, according to prosecutors. Wilson sent Trudeau a CashApp payment of $40 about the time of his arrival, the motion states.
Doorbell camera video shows Wilson leave his apartment at 5:19 p.m. and walk toward the nearby Cash America pawn shop. Surveillance video from the pawn shop shows Wilson walk up to a Mercedes, take something from a man in the front passenger seat and put it in his pocket.
A detective interviewed Trudeau on March 25 in Hillsborough’s Falkenburg Road Jail, where he was being held after a February arrest on trespassing and drug possession charges. (He was released last month after prosecutors dropped the drug charge and a judge sentenced him to time served for the the trespassing charge, records show). Trudeau said he’d known Wilson for a month or two by then and that they both knew the woman driving the Mercedes in the surveillance video, the motion states.
Trudeau was being held Wednesday without bond in the Falkenburg Road Jail. Prosecutors argued in the motion for pretrial detention that he is a danger to the community and that “proof of guilt is evident or the presumption is great.” A hearing on the motion is set for Tuesday. Court records show he has been appointed a public defender.