A man who supplied the fentanyl that killed a St. Charles, Missouri mother, leaving her three young children alone for over 15 hours, was sentenced to 90 months (7-1/2 years) in prison.
U.S. District Judge Audrey E. Fleissig also ordered Valentino Terez Carpenter, 39, of Maryland Heights, to pay $8,665 in funeral expenses for the victim.
The victim was found dead on the couch in her home on June 21, 2022, with a capsule containing fentanyl nearby, after the cries of her children alerted a neighbor. The woman’s children, ages 2, 4, and one month, had been alone for at least 15 hours after their mother’s death.
Carpenter pleaded guilty in September to one count of distribution of fentanyl and admitted selling two capsules containing drugs to the victim for $10. He also admitted that the victim was killed by a fentanyl overdose.
On Wednesday, Judge Fleissig said it was “beyond dispute” that Carpenter sold fentanyl to the victim, and that the sale resulted in her death. Judge Fleissig also said that Carpenter knew that fentanyl was “extremely dangerous,” as is the sale of the drug. He knew people who had died and warned the victim not to split a pill that he sold her because it was so potent.
Judge Fleissig said Carpenter left the victim alone after knowing that she was nodding off due to the effects of the drug and knowing there was no one else to care for the children. She called it an “extremely, extremely tragic case.”
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the St. Charles Police Department, and the St. Charles County Regional Drug Task Force.
