A 38-year-old woman charged with second-degree murder and the unlawful sale of fentanyl in a man's 2016 fatal overdose received a 25-year prison sentence Monday.
As part of an agreement between defense attorneys and prosecutors, Susan Hildreth pleaded guilty to facilitation of second-degree murder in the Dec. 1, 2016, overdose death of Kevin Boyd Heltenburg and a separate possession of heroin for resale charge. She was sentenced to 25 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction and will be eligible for parole after serving 45% of that punishment.
Hamilton County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Coyle said Heltenburg called Hildreth on Dec. 1, 2016, in need of narcotics, and they met at a gas station in East Ridge. Surveillance footage showed Hildreth putting items into a prescription bottle and handing it to Heltenburg, Coyle said. A witness to the transaction also said Hildreth and a passenger in her vehicle told Heltenburg he was "going to like that good stuff," Coyle said. Hours later, he overdosed and was found dead in his bathroom with drug paraphernalia around him, Coyle said, adding that he was found with a lethal amount of fentanyl in his system.
According to his obituary, Heltenburg was a 28-year-old brick mason of Baptist faith.
Hildreth, whose court documents list a home address in Nashville, had previously pleaded guilty in Hamilton County Criminal Court in 2015 to methamphetamine possession and received a suspended sentence. After prosecutors brought second-degree murder and unlawful sale of fentanyl charges in February 2018, Hildreth was later captured and charged separately with multiple counts of possession of heroin for resale, contraband in a penal institution and possession of drug paraphernalia. Many of these charges were dismissed as part of Monday's plea agreement, but because of other prior drug charges, Hildreth was eligible for a high range for punishment under state sentencing laws, prosecutors said.
Hildreth's case is part of a larger trend nationwide of bringing murder charges against dealers involved in fatal drug overdoses. Earlier this month, Sabrena Laquatra, 39, received a 15-year prison sentence in Hamilton County Criminal Court after being charged with second-degree murder in the 2017 overdose of Tyler Hillian. And although they did not bring murder charges, federal prosecutors secured indictments and guilty pleas in 2016 against three people involved in the sale of fentanyl-mixed heroin that resulted in the February 2016 death of Drug Court graduate Logan Whiteaker.
Law enforcement officials have said these kinds of prosecutions send a a message to people who deal narcotics mixed with dangerous chemicals. But other legal experts say these prosecutions are harsh and that locking up lower-level dealers doesn't have an effect on the number of people dying from overdoses. A 2018 study, for instance, by Rhode Island's Health Department predicted the state's overdose rate would continue to rise into the year 2020 without specific health interventions.
Contact Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.