A fentanyl dealer from Crossville has been arrested and charged with Second Degree Murder after one of her customers overdosed and died.
“On September 14, 2021, officers with the Crossville Police Department responded to a 911 call at a home on Willow Street in Crossville. Samuel Mashburn … was found deceased in the driveway,” according to a press release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). “An autopsy determined Mashburn died from acute combined multiple drug intoxication.”
After nearly three years of investigating, TBI and local law enforcement identified Jericia Hayes, who TBI describes as a “friend” of Mashburn’s, as the person who sold the fentanyl to Mashburn.
She was charged with one count of Second Degree Murder and one count of Delivery of Fentanyl and is being held in the Cumberland County Jail on a $ 1 million bond.
Tennessee has a law that punishes drug dealers if their customers overdose and die.
TN Code § 39-13-210 (2021) defines Second Degree Murder in part as “A killing of another by unlawful distribution or unlawful delivery or unlawful dispensation of fentanyl or carfentanil, when those substances alone, or in combination with any substance scheduled as a controlled substance by the Tennessee Drug Control Act of 1989…”
Second Degree Murder is a Class A felony in Tennessee, carrying a penalty of up to 60 years behind bars.
Complicating matters, Hayes has a long criminal history, according to records obtained by The Tennessee Star.
In January, she was charged with two counts of the sale of fentanyl and two charges of delivery of fentanyl, all Class C felonies carrying a potential of 15 years in prison. That case is ongoing.
In August of 2023, she was charged with a probation violation and later found guilty. It is unclear if she served jail time for that offense.
In 2021, she was charged with driving under the influence and paid a $200 fine to settle that case.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
