GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) - The Phoenix drug dealer who sold fentanyl that resulted in the death of a Mesa County jail inmate was sentenced Thursday.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado, Jeremiah Robinson, 44, was sentenced to over 19 1/2 years in prison followed by four years of supervision. He plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute over 40 grams of fentanyl.
Robinson - who was a longtime drug dealer and six-time convicted felon - "repeatedly" sold drugs to Efrain Velez, also a dealer who traveled from Mesa County to purchase from Robinson, the press release said.
On May 7, 2022, Robinson sold fentanyl and methamphetamine to Velez and two other associates, Vanessa Vasquez and Anna Munday, in Phoenix. When the trio traveled back to Mesa County, law enforcement pulled them other and found drugs, according to the press release.
Velez and Vasquez hid the drugs on their persons and smuggled them into the Mesa County Detention Facility. Munday and Vasquez disturbed the drugs to inmates once inside the jail. Then, on May 20, 2022, Karlie Locke gave one of the pills Robinson sold to another inmate who died of fentanyl intoxication, the press release said.
The four other conspirators were charged with fentanyl distribution, resulting in the inmate's death.
Vasquez was sentenced to nine years in prison while Locke was sentenced to 10 years. Munday and Velez are awaiting sentencing.
“Jeremiah Robinson valued the profit from his drug trade over the lives of his customers,” acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Matt Kirsch said in a press release. “Wherever you operate, if you sell drugs that make their way into Colorado, our office will find you and hold you accountable.”
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, two milligrams of fentanyl can kill the average person. Seven of the 10 pills tested contained roughly that amount.
The DEA and Mesa County Sheriff's Office investigated this case.