A former Campbell County Detention Center inmate will spend decades in prison for smuggling fentanyl into the jail, causing the overdoses of two others in custody there.
Jonathan Stanley, 40, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Covington to 22 years in prison. That sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge David Bunning, is less than the 30 years prosecutors recommended.
Stanley pleaded guilty in February to distribution of fentanyl resulting in serious bodily injury, the only charge stemming from his March 2023 indictment. He has entered an open plea, meaning he has no deal with prosecutors negotiated.
Prosecutors said one of the two inmates who overdosed on drugs provided by Stanley would have died without medical treatment.
Stanley was jailed in November 2022 after being arrested by U.S. Marshals for violating the terms of his supervised release following a previous conviction in federal court, prosecutors said.
On the same day Stanley was transferred from an isolation cell to the general population, jail staff responded to a cell where an inmate had symptoms of a suspected overdose, including breathing problems and seizures, prosecutors said.
After treating that inmate with Narcan and arranging for him to be taken to the hospital, another inmate in the same cell also began showing signs of an overdose.
One of the inmates later told investigators that they had consumed the same substance, which was supplied by Stanley in exchange for promises of money being deposited into his prison account, prosecutors said.
The inmate handed over the remaining substance to deputy jailers and it was later identified as fentanyl.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Bracke said the inmates believed the substance was cocaine, although there is no evidence Stanley tried to deceive them.
Prison surveillance footage showed Stanley handing something to one of the inmates in the hallway outside their cell shortly before the overdose, prosecutors said.
Stanley told other inmates in segregation that he had drugs on him and that he planned to distribute them once he was allowed to mingle with others at the facility, prosecutors said, adding that officers did not conduct a full search of the home when Stanley was arrested .
Prosecutors said both inmates have fully recovered.
Bunning said the death resulting from Stanley’s drug distribution through prison would certainly have been worse. However, the judge noted that the crime was serious because it took place in a correctional facility.
“He was not in a good place mentally at that time,” Eric Eckes, Stanley’s attorney, said in court.
Eckes said Stanley accepted responsibility for his actions and acknowledged the seriousness of his crime.
“It was never my intention for anyone to be hurt by my actions,” Stanley told the judge, at times choking back tears.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Man gets jail time for selling drugs to NKY inmates, causing overdoses
