WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — A grand jury has indicted a Winter Haven man for first-degree murder for the fentanyl overdose death of a 41-year-old man he is accused of selling drugs to, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.
Deputies say 29-year-old Gary Scott, Jr. was arrested back in March during an undercover heroin trafficking investigation. He has been in jail on multiple drug trafficking charges since then.
On Jan. 9, deputies and Polk County Rescue were called to the Rodeway Inn on Cypress Gardens in Winer Haven and found a 41-year-old man. He was unresponsive and later died, deputies said. Detectives with the Polk County Sheriff's office later learned the man bought three baggies of what he believed was heroin and took some of the drugs.
However, an elevated concentration of fentanyl was found in the man's blood and urine during the autopsy, according to the sheriff's office. No other drugs were found in his system, deputies say. The sheriff's office says the medical examiner's opinion is the man died as a result of fentanyl intoxication.
Scott was identified as the person who sold the 41-year-old man the drugs. A sample of the drugs he sold to the victim was found at the scene and sent to a lab for testing; detectives say the FDLE lab confirmed the drugs were fentanyl, not heroin.
Detectives interviewed Scott in March and say while he initially denied selling heroin to the victim, he later confessed. He told detectives he met the man at the Rodeway Inn and sold him a "baggie." Surveillance video also placed Scott at the motel on the day in question, the sheriff's office said.
After the grand jury's recent indictment, Scott was additionally charged with first-degree murder and sale of fentanyl, the sheriff's office said. He remains in jail.
"We have investigated 59 deaths related to drug overdoses so far in 2020 in our jurisdiction," Sheriff Grady Judd said. "This investigation is one part of holding the dealers accountable for selling these deadly drugs. For every parent who loses a child to illegal narcotics, there's someone out there responsible for selling the drug that caused it. These are not 'non-violent, low-level' crimes. These drugs ruin lives, destroy families, and kill people."
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