BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - Two men have been sentenced to federal prison after prosecutors say they were responsible for selling drugs that led to a woman's overdose death, federal prosecutors said.
Makeda Atkinson, 46, was sentenced Tuesday to serve 15 and a half years in federal prison, according to online court records. Donald Adams, 63, had previously been sentenced in January to serve 10 and a half years.
The two men, both from the port city of Brunswick, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute, prosecutors said in a news release. They were each ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completing their prison terms.
"Makeda Atkinson and Donald Adams were small-time drug dealers until their poison fueled the overdose death of a young mother whose body was found by her 5-year-old daughter," U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine said in the release. "Her death should serve as a wake-up call for other drug users to seek help - and as a warning to drug traffickers that we will find and prosecute them."
The 32-year-old woman, who had bought drugs from the pair on Dec. 28, 2017, was found dead in her parents home the next day, prosecutors said. An autopsy determined she died from acute fentanyl toxicity.
An investigation by the Glynn County Police Department and the FBI linked her death to heroin laced with fentanyl that Atkinson and Adams were selling in the Brunswick area, prosecutors said.
The two men "played a significant role in the death of a young mother poisoned by the drugs they were pushing," said Special Agent in Charge Chris Hacker, who leads the FBI's Atlanta office.