{"id":347781,"date":"2026-06-24T00:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/347781\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T00:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:19:09","slug":"north-texas-man-sentenced-to-life-for-supplying-fentanyl-in-womans-fatal-overdose-and-filming-her-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/347781\/","title":{"rendered":"North Texas man sentenced to life for supplying fentanyl in woman&#8217;s fatal overdose and filming her dying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/tag\/north-texas\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">North Texas<\/a> man who filmed a woman for hours as she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/tag\/drug-overdose\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">overdosed on fentanyl<\/a> he supplied \u2013 only calling for help after she stopped breathing \u2013 has been sentenced to life in federal prison, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Michael Smith, 36, of Denison, received the life sentence Monday from U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant, according to the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Eastern District of Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Smith supplied the victim with fentanyl and methamphetamine on Sept. 5, 2024, then watched and recorded her for hours as she showed severe overdose symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Smith watched and recorded the victim for several hours as she began to show severe signs of an overdose, including difficulty breathing, severe mental confusion, vomiting, and tremors,&#8221; the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office said in a news release. &#8220;After the victim had taken her last breath, Smith finally, but untimely, called emergency responders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Help called only after breathing stopped, authorities say<\/p>\n<p>Emergency responders were able to revive the woman, authorities said, but Smith waited until after she stopped breathing to call for help.<\/p>\n<p>During the hours the victim was dying, Smith continued communicating with others and arranging additional drug deals, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Smith targeted this victim because he knew her addiction made her vulnerable,&#8221; U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs said. &#8220;Smith deserves every day of this life sentence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Case tied to federal initiative<\/p>\n<p>The case falls under Operation Take Back America, a Department of Justice initiative aimed at combating cartels, transnational criminal organizations, illegal immigration, and violent crime.<\/p>\n<p>Investigating agencies included the FBI and the Denison Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>CBS News Texas will provide updates should additional information become available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A North Texas man who filmed a woman for hours as she overdosed on fentanyl he supplied \u2013&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[124140,430,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-347781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-drug-overdose","tag-north-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347781","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=347781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}