Following a near-yearlong investigation, a woman was arrested on a murder charge in connection to a 2024 fentanyl overdose death, the Amarillo Police Department announced Thursday, Oct. 23.
“The Amarillo Police Department remains committed to holding individuals accountable who contribute to fatal overdoses through the illegal distribution of fentanyl and other dangerous narcotics,” APD said.
On Dec. 25, 2024, Amarillo officers responded to a call in the 5700 block of Midsummer Court regarding an unresponsive woman, later identified as Sheridan Taylor, a 22. Taylor was ultimately declared deceased, and at the time of her death, she was pregnant. APD said that following an autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be acute fentanyl toxicity.
Over the course of nearly 10 months, a comprehensive investigation was conducted by the multiple agencies, including APD’s Narcotics Unit, Homicide Unit, Proactive Criminal Enforcement Unit, Digital Forensics Unit, and the Amarillo Regional Crime Center, in cooperation with the Randall County District Attorney’s Office, and task force officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
On Oct. 22, the investigation’s results were presented to the Randall County Grand Jury, which then returned an indictment against Joanna Bartlett, 38, charging her with murder for selling and supplying fentanyl to Taylor on Christmas Day 2024, which resulted in her death.
Bartlett was arrested and booked into the Randall County detention center.
Under Texas Penal Code, it is considered an offense of murder to knowingly manufacture or deliver fentanyl if another individual dies as a result of injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing that fentanyl into their body, whether used alone or in combination with another substance, police said.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo investigation of fentanyl death leads to arrest, murder charge
