Drug Dealer Pleads Guilty to Minnesota Teen Girl’s Fentanyl-Induced Death
Hastings, MN (KROC-AM News)- A teenage drug dealer has admitted to a murder charge connected to the drug overdose death of a Minnesota teenager.
The case opened last Spring in Dakota County Court. The victim is from West St. Paul.
The criminal complaint says the 15-year-old girl’s mother found her unresponsive in bed shortly before 1:00 on the morning of April 20, 2022. The teen’s mother and first responders administered life-saving measures but the young girl was pronounced dead.
There were blue pills labeled with an M on the victim’s bed. An autopsy later determined she died of fentanyl toxicity, the complaint says.
The victim’s mother turned over her daughter’s phone to police which led investigators to discover a snapchat conversation between the teen and an account traced 19-year-old Parker Jay Benson of Bloomington.
The messages indicated Benson, who was 17 at the time of the girl's death had sold the victim her pills that led to her overdose death. He told her the pills that were eventually found in the bed were percocet, the court document says.
Bloomington Police pulled Benson over about one month after the girl’s death and found prescription pills and M30 pills in his vehicle, court records say. Benson was formally charged with third-degree murder on March 31.
On Wednesday Benson entered a plea agreement that calls for him to admit to the third-degree murder charge. In exchange the prosecution will ask for a sentence of 74 months in prison, which is on the lower end of state sentencing guidelines.
A judge will decide Benson’s punishment during a sentencing hearing next month.
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