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Bryant Tayler of Pemberton Township was charged with first-degree strict liability for drug-induced death for allegedly selling fentanyl-laced heroin, according to Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina.
Taylor must serve 85 percent of the term before becoming eligible for parole, the prosecutor said.
“Fentanyl is a deadly poison, responsible for the majority of the nearly 100,000 overdose deaths in our country last year," Coffina said. "Dealing fentanyl demonstrates extreme recklessness, and a resulting death is entirely foreseeable."
"This sentence should reinforce the message to dealers that they will pay a steep price in Burlington County if their drugs kill the person they are selling it to," the prosecutor said Tuesday.
A Superior Court jury also convicted Taylor in August of witness tampering and numerous other drug-related offenses, Coffina said.
In addition to the 25-year term on the Drug-Induced Death charge, the court also sentenced Taylor to consecutive five-year sentences for the drug distribution and witness tampering offenses. The sentences will run consecutively, bringing the total period of incarceration to 35 years, Coffina said.
The investigation began on June 18, 2017, after Pemberton police were called to the Wawa convenience store on Arney’s Mount Road for a report of an unresponsive male on the men’s bathroom floor.
Shane Cullens, 26, of Pemberton Township, was rushed to a hospital and died two days later without ever regaining consciousness, Coffina said.
Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood concluded the cause of death was heroin and fentanyl toxicity. An investigation concluded that the drugs causing the fatal overdose were sold by Taylor, the prosecutor said.
The case was prosecuted by former BCPO Assistant Prosecutor Jeremy Lackey and Assistant Prosecutor Melissa O’Mara.
The investigation was conducted by the Pemberton Township Police Department, with assistance from the BCPO High-Tech Crimes Unit.
The lead investigator was BCPO Detective Sergeant Danielle Hann.
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