Felon charged with homicide for delivering a fatal dose of fentanyl to a Richland woman
A gun store burglar is now facing a homicide charge for handing over a fatal dose of fentanyl to 51-year-old woman at her Richland home.
In a rare move, the Benton County prosecutors have charged Blake McKinley Sickler, 29, with the crime of controlled substance homicide for Darcei Renae Allstead’s overdose death two years ago.
A series of text messages sent between 5:30 and 8 p.m. on Valentine’s Day 2020 allegedly show Sickler setting up a time to meet Allstead at her home on Smith Avenue, according to court documents.
In a text message Sickler later sent to a friend, he said he dropped off two “blues” for Allstead. Blues is a slang term for blue-colored fentanyl pills. He claimed she also was taking morphine at the time.
Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and hundreds of times stronger than street-level heroin, federal officials have said. In recent years, it has surpassed methampthetamine as the illegal drug responsible for the most overdose deaths.
A little more than 15 minutes after the final text message, Allstead collapsed in the bathroom. Her partner heard something fall and found the door locked. After forcing it open, he found her unconscious and called 911.
She died the next day.
According to the nurse practitioner who signed the death certificate, acute fentanyl intoxication led to her heart stopping and a brain injury.
A blood test showed she had fentanyl and norfentanyl in her system. It was one of 20 fentanyl-caused deaths in Benton County in 2020.
While the new charges were filed in May, Sickler is serving a prison term at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell. He was sentenced in 2021 for burglary, stealing seven guns and illegally possessing a firearm in Benton County.
Along with another man, he forced his way into the Hole in the Wall gun store on Deschutes Avenue in April 2020. He is not scheduled to be released on those charges until 2026, according to the Washington state Department of Corrections.
Controlled substance homicide
The charge of controlled substance homicide is not filed often in Washington state.
While it’s been on the books since 1987, the last time someone was charged with the offense in Benton County was in 2011.
At the time, Brian Burt, a suspected 35-year-old drug dealer, was charged in two overdose deaths. And he faced a third count in Franklin County.
He was accused of being in the same room as two fellow heroin addicts, Shirley E. Sanders, 44, and Derek Scott Bradley, 21, when they died. And he supplied a lethal dose heroin to Liam D. Hermsen, 29.
Police and prosecutors at the time said he was under investigation for three more deaths.
In the end, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant in 2018 said it can be a difficult charge to prove.
Not only do prosecutors need to show that the suspect supplied the drugs to the victim, but also they must prove that it was that particular dose that killed the person.
“We must believe that a reasonable jury would find sufficient evidence of each element beyond a reasonable doubt before we would file charges,” Sant said at the time.
Federal prosecutors charged two men in 2018 in the Tri-Cities with selling a lethal dose of fentanyl to a man who was found dead in his apartment after investigators found the pills near his body.
Hector Medina, who was accused of moving significant quantities of drugs through the Tri-Cities, pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The man who gave the pills to his friend, Jubentino Soto, was sentenced to five years in a federal prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.
This story was originally published October 4, 2022 at 12:56 PM.