The person who law enforcement authorities allege transferred fentanyl to a 33-year-old man who overdosed and died inside a northwest Fort Worth Subway restaurant bathroom has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office successfully sought a murder indictment for Richard Elphick, who was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison in connection with the April 2024 death.
Elphick accepted a plea offer from the district attorney’s office in which it moved to dismiss the murder count.
Cole Kryger’s death was caused by combined fentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity in an accident, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. Kryger died at the restaurant in the 2400 block of Meacham Boulevard.
Fort Worth police officers arrested Elphick on May 14, 2025.
Judge Amy Allin, who presides in the 297th District Court in Tarrant County, sentenced Elphick under the plea agreement.
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If a jury had found Elphick guilty of murder at trial, the panel would have been directed to consider a prison term of five to 99 years or life.
Defense attorney Kathy Lowthorp, whom the court appointed to represent Elphick, described, in response to a reporter’s question, the factors that are weighed in plea negotiation in fentanyl-murder indictments.
“In these cases, it is very hard for the state to prove in some situations because time has passed and drug addicts have more than one source for their drugs and there could also be a mixture of drugs which could also be an indicator of possible different sources of drugs,” Lowthorp wrote in an email.