PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — A St. Petersburg man will spend the rest of his life in prison for selling fentanyl that led to the overdose deaths of two Pinellas Park residents.
After a jury convicted him in April, 41-year-old Bobby Peterson was sentenced to concurrent life sentences in federal court Tuesday on charges including distribution of fentanyl resulting in death and conspiracy to distribute fentanyl resulting in death.
The case stems from an investigation beginning in 2020, when two young parents unrelated to each other and only living a mile apart in Pinellas Park, were both found dead in their bedrooms from fentanyl overdoses.
Pinellas Park Police say the timing of the two separate deaths sparked an immediate investigation.
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“One was 32, one was 34, they left behind children, they left behind family members,” Pinellas Park Police Chief Adam Geissenberger said at a news conference Tuesday. Geissenberger says in both cases, neither knew the drugs they were taking had fentanyl in them.
According to court documents on May 12, 2020, Peterson sold fentanyl to a woman who then distributed it to her male friend. A few hours later, the man died. On the same day, investigators say Peterson communicated with another woman about the sale of fentanyl. She was also dead within a matter of hours.
According to U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg, the prosecutor in the case, Peterson expressed no remorse when he learned of their deaths, “and instead responded, 'They know what they’re doing.'”
Peterson, who has a lengthy criminal record, also sold fentanyl to an undercover detective and was sentenced under enhanced federal penalties for dealers who sell fentanyl resulting in deaths.
Handberg says his office prioritizes working with local and federal law enforcement partners to continue cracking down on fentanyl in the community. From the traffickers who bring it across the border to those selling to single parents battling addiction in local communities.
“The hard work of the Pinellas Park Police Department and the DEA with the assistance of the FBI has ensured that Peterson will never again have the opportunity to endanger anyone in this community again," Handberg wrote.
“While we celebrate the success, we must also remember that it is a result of a parent's worst nightmare witnessing their child has died, poisoned by fentanyl,” Deanne Reuter, special agent in charge at DEA – Miami, said.
“Mr. Peterson's actions that day resulted in this nightmare for a local family and this community whose lives in the space of a moment were changed forever,” he added.