KEY WEST, Fla. — A 23-year-old Marathon woman was charged with murder on Wednesday for selling deadly fentanyl that caused the overdose of another woman, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
Alexis Joy Sather is accused of selling the deadly drug to 53-year-old Amanda Roberts who was found dead at her home on Sept. 2, 2022, deputies said in a news release.
The Medical Examiner’s Office determined a fentanyl and diazepam overdose was the cause of Roberts' death, the sheriff's office said. An investigation led deputies to believe Sather sold the fentanyl to Roberts.
“I hope this message is very clear; quit selling this poison in our community, it is ruining lives and killing people,” said Sheriff Rick Ramsay. “If you sell these drugs and someone dies, we will pursue murder charges against you.”
Sather was already in jail on other drug-related charges when she was charged with Robert's death, deputies said.
A bill that would decriminalize a tool to help prevent people from overdosing on fentanyl is advancing in the Florida Senate.
The change would legalize products like fentanyl test strips that test whether a controlled substance contains fentanyl or a fentanyl analog — something that’s chemically similar to it.
With fentanyl being laced into so many drugs, test strip kits could warn a user within minutes that the drug they’re about to take has fentanyl in it.
Senate Bill 164 would exclude fentanyl test strip kits from the state’s definition of “drug paraphernalia.” That means anyone who has one or uses it in Florida couldn’t be arrested or prosecuted for it.
10 Tampa Bay's Jenna Bourne contributed to this story.
