(Left to Right: Prosecutor Frank Sullivan, the remnants of the dose of fatal fentanyl, Danielle Cooper at trial)
Danielle Cooper will spend the rest of her life in prison after being found guilty Tuesday of Death Caused by the Distribution of Fentanyl, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Cooper, 42, sold $100 worth of fentanyl at her residence to Regina Vasconcelos on Oct. 5, 2021. The victim was found dead in her home the next day, a used syringe by her side. The amount of fentanyl in her system was found to be 20-30 times higher than the fatal level.
Jurors deliberated for 23 minutes after Prosecutor Frank Sullivan’s closing argument before returning its verdict. In Florida, Death Caused by the Distribution of Fentanyl is a capital felony. Cooper was immediately sentenced to Life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was already serving a 30-year sentence after being found guilty in March 2023 of Trafficking in Fentanyl (more than 14 grams but less than 28 grams).
“This case is a textbook example of why fentanyl is so dangerous – it is a very deadly drug made in clandestine labs and neither the traffickers nor the people they sell it to have any idea how potent it is from batch to batch,” Sullivan said. “The potency of different samples within the same batch can even differ.
“This particular defendant bragged about how potent her drugs were as she continued to sell them knowing the potential dangers and consequences,” he continued. “Our law enforcement partners, like the Bay County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Investigations Division in this case, will continue to track down the source in overdose deaths and we will continue to prosecute them under Florida’s enhanced laws.”
RELATED: Judge Upholds Life Sentence in 1997 Murder
RELATED: 40-Year Sentence in Stabbing Death
The victim was found dead in her home Oct. 6, 2021, after she missed a dialysis appointment and the clinic contacted her sister, who had just returned to her out-of-state home after spending about a year here caring for the victim. She testified that her sister suffered health problems including the removal of her spleen and one kidney, COVID, open-heart surgery, and that her remaining kidney was failing.
The sister called the Bay County Sheriff’s Office for a welfare check and gave them permission to ender her sister’s home. They found her body inside.
Investigators developed evidence – including texts between the victim, the defendant and a witness – that the defendant agreed to sell her fentanyl Oct. 5, 2021. The witness said she drove the victim to Cooper’s residence and saw her obtain the “green” and “glassy” substance identified as fentanyl.
Investigators served a search warrant on Cooper’s residence Oct. 8, 2021, and saw her throw a bag of fentanyl from her truck. They found another baggie of fentanyl in her bra and she was subsequently charged with trafficking.
In November 2022, after a full investigation and toxicology results, Cooper was also charged with the victim’s death.
Dr. Jay Radtke, Medical Examiner for the 14th Judicial Circuit, said while the victim suffered health problems that required prescription medications, the level of fentanyl in her system was so high that it would have killed her no matter what else was in her system.
Basford thanked the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and Medical Examiner’s Office for their continued work on this case. For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.