Fentanyl overdose death brings Hennepin County murder charge

A Minneapolis man was charged with third-degree murder in the heroin overdose death of one of the people who bought heroin from him.

Anthony West, 43, was also charged with first-degree sale of heroin in the criminal complaint filed late Friday afternoon, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said in a statement. Bail was set at $500,000.

The criminal complaint says police went to an Edina home Feb. 25 and found a 27-year-old man dead at a desk in his bedroom. The medical examiner ruled it a death from fentanyl toxicity. Fentanyl is a powerful narcotic sometimes mixed into heroin; 39 of the opiate-related deaths in Hennepin County in 2016 involved fentanyl, compared with nine in 2015.

One of the victim's friends told police that the two went looking for heroin the night of Feb. 24.

"They met with her dealer, West, and she bought the heroin. She and the victim immediately injected themselves with the drug and they parted company about 11:30 p.m.," the county attorney's office said.

"During the investigation, police learned that West was routinely bringing heroin into Minnesota from Chicago," the agency said, adding that on Thursday, police officers pulled him over on Interstate 94 in Hennepin County and found nearly 30 grams of heroin in his underwear.

Last month, a Maplewood woman was found guilty of third-degree murder for selling heroin to a 20-year-old man who died of an overdose last year. A Hennepin County judge ruled that drug dealer Beverly Burrell, 31, played a substantial part in the death of Luke Ronnei.