A man who brought enough Fentanyl into Bay County to cause 25,000 overdoses has been sentenced to 35 years in prison, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Joseph Earl Lord, 47, was set to go to trial this week on charges of Trafficking in Fentanyl (28 grams of more), Trafficking in Illegal Drugs, and Trafficking in Amphetamine (14 grams but less than 28). Instead, he entered an open plea to the charges, meaning he admitted guilty but left sentencing up Circuit Court Judge Dustin Stephenson.
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All three charges are first-degree felonies normally punishable by up to 30 years in prison. But Prosecutor Nicole Reed proved that Lord’s previous criminal history qualified him to be sentenced as a Habitual Felony Offender – meaning he faced up to Life in prison.
Judge Stephenson adjudicated the defendant guilty on all charges, sentencing him to 35 years with a 25-year minimum-mandatory on the Fentanyl case. The defendant was sentenced to 30 years each on the other trafficking charges to be served consecutively, or at the same time, as the first sentence.
“This wasn’t his first trip, he’s a known supplier of one of the most lethal drugs out there and he was living outside of our area and bringing it into Bay County for sale,” Reed said. “Unfortunately for him, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office was ready and waiting and made the arrest. Our office was ready and waiting to prosecute and now, at 47, he’s been sentenced to spend the next 35 years in prison.”
Reed was prepared to present witnesses and evidence showing that the BCSO had been investigating drugs coming into Bay County through a specific address and developed information the defendant would arrive there Nov. 10, 2021, with a large amount of narcotics.
When the defendant arrived and walked into the house with a backpack, deputies served a previously obtained search warrant. The defendant ran into the kitchen area and the backpack was found on the floor under a table. Inside the backpack deputies found 50 grams of Fentanyl, 5 ounces of Methamphetamine, and 9 grams of heroin.
Basford thanked the Sheriff’s Office and case agent Phillip Hill for making one of the larger Fentanyl seizures in the area, and their proactive work in seizing the drugs before they made it onto the streets.
For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.