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Larry Jerome Eastman, 22, of Temple Hills, and his sister, DC resident Justice Michelle Eastman, 26, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl following the death of a known drug user, federal authorities announced.
Prosecutors said that the Eastmans were linked to the fatal overdose when investigators reviewed their victim’s phone following her death, which revealed text messages from the day before her death with Larry Eastman asking for “jammers,” which is “a street term that often refers to counterfeit blue Oxycodone pills that contain fentanyl.”
Eastman directed his victim to an address in Washington, DC, and requested that the woman make a payment to a Cashapp account registered to his sister.
Additional communication between the victim and Eastman was also recovered, which dated back to September 2020, the time their conspiracy was launched, officials said.
According to the government's evidence, the Southeast Washington, DC woman who was killed by the duo’s fentanyl-laced pills that were purported oxycodone, suffered an earlier overdose in November 2020 and had to be revived by paramedics using Narcan.
On the day her body was found, white powder was discovered on a coffee table at the 20-year-old woman’s DC apartment. The DEA analyzed the powder and determined it was fentanyl.
An autopsy from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that her cause of death was “acute fentanyl intoxication.”
A DEA spokesperson said that the agency’s laboratory is reporting that of the fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills analyzed last year, six of 10 now contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.
“Because of its potency and low cost, fentanyl is increasingly being mixed with other drugs including heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine, increasing the likelihood of a fatal interaction,” they said. “Particularly dangerous are fake prescription pills like the fake oxycodone M30 tablets seized in this case, which contain fentanyl.”
Both siblings were arrested on Jan. 26, 2022, and are scheduled to be sentenced in June. At the time they were arrested, investigators also seized additional fake oxycodone pills with fentanyl that matched the pills linked to the overdose.
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