Under an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, Kahlil Carpenter, 31, pleaded guilty last month to strict liability for drug-induced death in exchange for the prison term.
“Fentanyl has destroyed so many families and devastated several of our communities,” Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia Bradshaw said. “We must take extraordinary measures to offer protection against such harmful, and often deadly, effects.”
The investigation began on Dec. 14, 2019, after Evesham Township police officers were dispatched to Inverness Circle for a report of an unconscious and unresponsive female. They entered the home and found Holly Morris deceased in her bed.
An autopsy performed by Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood determined she died from fentanyl toxicity, with levels in her system five times greater than the amount necessary to cause death, the prosecutor said.
The investigation determined that Morris had met Carpenter in Lumberton Township on Dec. 13, 2019, to purchase the drugs, Bradshaw said.
Carpenter was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Michael Angermeier, supervisor of the Gang, Gun and Narcotics Task Force. The case was investigated by the Evesham Township Police Department.
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