PHOENIX – On November 25, 2019, Melvin Woods, 26, of Phoenix, was sentenced to 84 months in prison previously pleading guilty to distribution of fentanyl resulting in death.
On August 1, 2018, Woods, a clerk, sold blue “M-30” pills that looked like oxycodone to a customer at a pool store in Phoenix.
According to Phoenix Police Department (PPD) reports and court documents:
The victim in this case died on August 1, 2018, after consuming some of these pills. Prior to this date, the victim was ill, was out of his prescription suboxone, and unsuccessfully attempted to obtain pills from approximately two other individuals. The victim then communicated with Woods over social media and arranged to purchase pain pills from Woods.
On the afternoon of August 1, 2018, Woods came to the victim’s place of employment, a pool store in Phoenix, and met with the victim. According to surveillance cameras, Woods was in the store briefly and left the store with no pool supplies in hand.
A short while after Woods left the store, another customer came there. This customer found the victim unconscious on the bathroom floor and called emergency services. Notably, the only two customers in this store during the relevant time period was Woods and this later customer who contacted emergency services.
PPD and PPF responded to the store, recovered the victim’s phone, and took photographs of the scene to include part of a pill that the victim apparently smoked.
The victim was transported to the hospital and was pronounced dead.
On August 4, 2018, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner determined that the victim died due to fentanyl toxicity.
A relative told PPD that, on the afternoon of August 1, 2018, the victim called her, explained that the victim had withdrawals, that the victim made contact with Woods over social media, and was going to get some pills from Woods, but was afraid it may be an undercover police officer. The victim then told this relative that the victim loved her. Notably, the timing of this call coincides with the victim’s text messages with Woods and surveillance footage of Woods going to the pool store.
A PPD narcotics detective then inspected the victim’s phone, found relevant contacts between Woods and the victim, and contacted Woods over social media in an undercover capacity. On August 7, 2018, this detective met with and purchased “blue M30” pills that contained fentanyl and marijuana from Woods. The first purchase occurred outside Woods’s house. The second occurred in a gas station parking lot.
During one of these exchanges, Woods warned the detective about these pills.
On August 9, 2018, PPD arrested Woods on a misdemeanor warrant. PPD recovered more “blue M30” pills that contained fentanyl from Woods’s person and Woods’s cellular telephone, which contained the text messages between Woods and the victim setting up their meeting on August 1, 2018.
Of note, in those texts, Woods continued to contact the victim (apparently not knowing the victim had died) and offered to sell the victim more pills on August 2, 2018. After being advised of and waiving his Miranda rights, Woods, in sum, admitted to selling pills to the victim at the pool store, admitted that Woods had a couple of other customers, and admitted that Woods mostly sold and used marijuana. On May 15, 2019, Woods was arrested in this case. Woods told a Drug Enforcement Administration agent (who was discussing a fentanyl seizure in another case with another agent) that Woods, in sum, stayed away from “that stuff” after he was arrested on August 9, 2018.