County Updates
An 18-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murder in connection to the death of a Hays County teenager due to fentanyl overdose.
In a press conference following the death, police said they were dispatched to the home of a 15-year-old student in Kyle who they found unresponsive on April 11, 2023. Lifesaving measures were attempted by EMS at the scene, but the victim was pronounced deceased. A preliminary police investigation indicated that the death was caused by an accidental overdose of an unknown drug at that time. The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted presumptive testing, which showed positive results that the drug was fentanyl. On the same day of the reported overdose fatality, Jaquell Desean Ray, 18, was taken into custody by police and subsequently charged with delivery of a controlled substance or marijuana to a minor, a second degree felony.
According to a press release from Hays County District Attorney Kelly Higgins, the Hays County Sheriff’s Office investigated and determined that Ray had delivered the pills containing fentanyl that caused the death. The investigators determined that Ray knew that he was selling fentanyl, that he was aware of the dangers associated with fentanyl and that he had delivered the fentanyl to the victim the evening before his death. Ray had also previously been arrested for dealing fentanyl in 2022. Ray was out on bond from the earlier arrest when he sold the fatal dose.
“To sell fentanyl is to risk a life sentence. This is the message,” Higgins said in May when the charges were filed. “The evidence does support the filing of a felony murder charge. Felony murder, under the Texas penal code, results when a person commits or attempts to commit a felony and in the course of commission of that crime commits an act clearly dangerous to human life which results in the death of an individual.”
Ray was sentenced on Feb. 20 by Judge Tanner Neidhardt, of the 483rd District Court, after entering a plea of guilty to murder in exchange for an agreement that he serve 10 years in prison.
“To those that are selling fentanyl or other fake pills, be prepared.” Assistant Special Agent Tyson Hodge who is in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration out of Austin said at the time. “We will come after you.”
Ray has been incarcerated in the Hays County Jail since that time.
Higgins emphasized the seriousness of Fentanyl and its impact on the lives of young people.
“It takes so little to kill, to destroy the lives not only of the departed but of the survivors,” Higgins said. “This office will do everything within its power to stem the tide of death and loss that Fentanyl brings to our communities. Holding dealers accountable for the deaths they facilitate is one way we can fight back against the horrific fentanyl epidemic devastating our communities.”