Guilty Plea by Drug Dealer Blamed For Minnesota Teenager’s Death
Red Wing, MN (KROC-AM News) - Just days before his trial was scheduled to begin, a Red Wing man today entered into a plea agreement to charges stemming from the drug overdose death of a 14-year-old boy.
45-year-old DeShawn Lee Smith was accused of being the supplier of the counterfeit M30 pills that were ingested by the juvenile boy just before he died from the toxic effects of fentanyl in January 2023. The criminal complaint says the teenager was found unresponsive in his bedroom at his family's home by his father, who also found a fragment of a blue M30 bill.
The court document indicates Red Wing police previously had contact with the teenage victim while investigating drug deals taking place at an apartment complex. The juvenile boy told investigators he had been purchasing drugs from a pair of 14-year-old boys who attended Red Wing High School. The criminal complaint also noted that the victim had survived two previous overdoses.
The charges against Smith say one of the teenage drug dealers later identified Smith as his supplier. The court document also indicates Smith was the boyfriend of the mother of one of the suspected drug dealers at the high school.
Today, Smith entered guilty pleas to a second-degree manslaughter charge and a second-degree drug sales charge. In exchange, Goodhue County prosecutors dropped a third-degree murder charge and two other felony drug charges.
Smith is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
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