Jesse Medina pled guilty in March to a charge of aiding and abetting the distribution of fentanyl, according to the Department of Justice.
DALLAS — A 42-year-old man has been sentenced to federal prison in the fentanyl overdose death of a North Texas teenager, officials said.
Jesse Medina pled guilty in March to a charge of aiding and abetting the distribution of fentanyl, according to the Department of Justice. U.S. District Judge David Godbey on Monday sentenced Medina to 292 months — more than 24 years — in federal prison.
The victim’s name was not disclosed by officials.
Prosecutors said Medina, who was known as “Plug,” sold a co-defendant, Connor Miller, and the teen victim four fentanyl pills for $40 in January 2024. Miller and the teen went back to Miller’s home, prosecutors said, and the teen died of an overdose after using the fentanyl.
Medina was arrested the next day with 25 pills of fentanyl on him, prosecutors said. Medina later contacted a woman and told her he sold the pills to a 21-year-old and that a 17-year-old who used the pills died, according to the release.
“I don’t have no sympathy for the seventeen-year-old at all … Cause that’s his choice,” Medina told the woman, according to the release. “[H]e’s old enough to know how dangerous these pills are … I don’t got no sympathy for that … [I]f I would have sold it to him …. I would feel bad, but I don’t even feel bad at all, I’m cool, ’cause I didn’t do nothing wrong.”
Prosecutors said evidence in the hearing showed that Medina had prior drug convictions, including an arrest for methamphetamine in 2018.
“Tough sentences are necessary for those defendants responsible for the tragic deaths resulting from fentanyl trafficking,” Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy E. Larson said in the release. “This Office will continue to advocate for the most severe sentences for those who, like the defendant, have a cavalier attitude toward the deadly consequences of their actions.”
Miller, the co-defendant, and another co-defendant, Tecose Dchaz Martin, also pleaded guilty in the case. Their sentencing is pending.