The Brief<\/p>\n
Destin Scott, 31, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, marking the first fentanyl-related murder conviction in Dallas County under a 2023 Texas law.<\/p>\n
Investigators used cellphone and social media records to prove Scott sold the lethal mix of ecstasy and fentanyl that caused a woman’s fatal overdose.<\/p>\n
Under the state statute, prosecutors can now charge drug distributors with murder if they knowingly deliver lethal doses of fentanyl resulting in a “poisoning” death.<\/p>\n
DALLAS – The first person to be convicted of murder in Dallas County under the state\u2019s new fentanyl law was sentenced to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n
What’s new<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, 31-year-old Destin Scott pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n
His conviction marks the first in Dallas County under Texas\u2019 fentanyl murder statute enacted in 2023.<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
Police accused Scott of killing a woman who was found dead inside her vehicle outside a fast food restaurant in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Although there were no signs of foul play, the autopsy report determined she died because of an overdose of ecstasy and fentanyl.<\/p>\n
Investigators found a bag of pills and two cellphones in her vehicle. They used cellphone records, social media communications, and other evidence to determine that she purchased the drugs from Scott.<\/p>\n
Dig deeper<\/p>\n
Under the new state law, fentanyl-related overdose deaths are classified as “poisonings.” Those who distribute the fentanyl can be charged with murder if they:<\/p>\n
knowingly distributed fentanyl to the victim<\/p>\n
acted with knowledge of the drug being fentanyl and disregarded its lethal risk<\/p>\n
and the distribution directly caused the victim\u2019s death<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
The information in this story comes from a news release from the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Destin Scott, 31, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, marking the first fentanyl-related murder conviction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,581,104,103,119693,2111,119694],"class_list":["post-334980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-county","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-destin-scott","tag-fentanyl","tag-murder-conviction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}