High school student dead in string of recent North Texas tragedies linked to fentanyl – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

North Texas continues to battle the fentanyl crisis and fentanyl overdose deaths.

NBC 5 has learned new details about the death of a Wylie high school student as local police step up efforts to track down those supplying the deadly drug.

A newly released 16-page criminal complaint filed in the Northern District of Texas details the tragic choices that federal authorities say led to the death of Chance Stovall, 17, in January.

Robbie Stovall declined an interview with NBC 5 on Thursday, saying he just wants to raise awareness about the deadly drug.

In an earlier interview, Stovall said he didn't know how his son got a pill containing fentanyl, but he suspected he was simply experimenting.

According to the criminal complaint, Connor Miller, 17, of Richardson, allegedly confessed to local and federal authorities that he and his friend Chance Stovall repeatedly visited a drug dealer in Dallas, specifically for fentanyl pills.

The two met at work and began using M30 fentanyl tablets shortly after meeting, the court file shows.

Miller allegedly told detectives that Stovall “knew they were buying fentanyl” and that he told Stovall “fentanyl was dangerous.”

The two allegedly met with their drug dealer on Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas in late January and purchased four fentanyl tablets for $40.

“(Miller) stated he crushed and snorted two fentanyl tablets” while Stovall snorted two crushed tablets over “a period of approximately 30-45 minutes.”

Miller said he fell asleep and woke up to find Stovall unconscious on the floor, surrounded by vomit.

Stovall's lips were blue and Miller believed he had overdosed, the criminal complaint said.

The teen's tragic death is one of several cases reported recently in Dallas and Fort Worth involving the highly addictive and deadly synthetic opioid being “pre-marketed as fentanyl” or disguised as other drugs including Percocet and Adderall.

DEA Dallas Field Division Special Agent Eduardo Chaves says fentanyl is the most dangerous illegal drug he has ever used.

“Pills and tablets are very disarming for our society,” he explains. “We grew up with medicine.”

He believes the idea that it's “just a pill” has led to an explosion in fentanyl use and deaths.

“Criminal organizations have tried to imitate these drugs to make them look like legitimate pharmaceutical drugs, but now we are seeing more and more people suffering from substance abuse are asking for fentanyl pills,” Chavez said.

During the investigation into Stovall's death, investigators found a note in Miller's bedroom, detailing Miller's ongoing struggle with addiction and his stint(s) in rehab. The note read, in part: “If anything happens to me, I love you guys… Thank you for all the opportunities. I'm sorry I did this, it wasn't on purpose.”

In recent years, law enforcement agencies and school districts have emphasized the dangers of purchasing or accepting pills not prescribed by a doctor, emphasizing, “One pill can kill you.”

“You can't just take half the amount of fentanyl that's in a pill because there are no quality controls,” Chavez said.

According to the DEA, Mexican drug cartels are producing and smuggling fentanyl powder and pills into the U.S. using chemicals imported from China.

These criminal organizations aim to create fentanyl addicts and view every fentanyl-related death in the US as “the price of doing business.”

“(Fentanyl) doesn’t carry the same risk or the same threat as a glass pipe full of methamphetamine,” Chavez said. “It looks like a pill. It looks like something we’re very used to seeing.”

Stovall's death is one of several cases that have occurred in North Texas in recent months.

While Miller is charged by the federal government with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and using his cellphone to facilitate a drug crime, suspected fentanyl suppliers in other deadly fentanyl-related cases are facing murder charges.

The 88th Session of the Texas Legislature amended state law allowing a person who “intentionally manufactures or delivers fentanyl” and results in the death of another person, as a result of injecting, swallowing, inhaling, or introducing it into that person’s body, to be charged with murder.

Last week, Grapevine police announced the arrest of Kami Ludwig, 35, in connection with the death of her boyfriend Shane Nolen, 47, from a fentanyl overdose in November.

According to the GPD, Ludwig is charged with murder and possession of a controlled substance.

Parker County announced that Chukwubogu Okwedi, 33, of Frisco was arrested in late January in connection with the shooting death of a 36-year-old man.

Okwedi is charged with murder and manufacturing a controlled substance for sale of narcotics containing fentanyl, which resulted in the man's death, the sheriff's office said.

During a Tuesday morning press conference focused on the fight against drug cartels that smuggle drugs like fentanyl across the Mexican border, Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner was told of a new arrest.

Skinner announced the arrest of Gregory Noah Honesty in connection with the fentanyl poisoning death of a 25-year-old Blue Ridge woman.

Honesty, the sheriff's office says, sold the woman M30 pills, which led to her death.

The sheriff said the suspect faces a murder charge under the new state law and is warning other vendors.

“If we identify the person who smuggled fentanyl, which resulted in the death of someone here in Collin County, we are going to prosecute you and charge you with murder,” Skinner said.