A federal grand jury has indicted 18-year-old Jeremial Lee Leach, of Evansville, on one count of Distribution of Fentanyl Resulting in Death, two counts of Distribution of Fentanyl, and one count of Possession with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl.
Leach is allegedly responsible for dealing Fentanyl that resulted in at least three overdoses and one death. Court documents state that just after midnight on June 25th, 2022, the Evansville Police Department responded to Wedeking Avenue in reference to an adult woman who overdosed and needed to be revived with Naloxone.
Later that same day EPD responded to the same Wedeking Avenue address for reports of another overdosed woman who later passed away. The coroner located a counterfeit oxycodone pill that contained Fentanyl on the deceased woman’s person. The cause of both overdoses at the Wedeking Avenue residence was determined to be Fentanyl intoxication.
A search of the deceased woman’s phone located conversations via the Snapchat application with Jeremial “Mel” Leach in which they discussed the transaction of “blues” and Leach provided the woman his Shanklin Avenue address.
Around 4:15 on the afternoon of August 20th, 2022 EPD officers were dispatched to a restaurant on Hirschland Road concerning a possible overdose. Police arrived at the location and found a woman who was not alert and beginning to lose consciousness as she sat on the ground in the parking lot of the business. A short time after receiving a Naloxone shot from responding officers, the woman advised police that she had taken 30 mg of Oxycodone.
Two days later, on August 22nd, 2022, the third victim told police that on the day of her overdose, she purchased four Percocet 30s from a Shanklin Avenue address, and overdosed because the pills contained Fentanyl.
Officers with the EPD responded to a called-in report of a single-vehicle accident just after 2:00 p.m. on October 7th, 2022. The witness advised that the driver of the vehicle was a minor boy that was no longer coherent. Emergency personnel unsuccessfully attempted to wake the driver with a sternum rub before administering Naloxone. When the boy became conscious he advised that he had taken two Percocet 7.5 mg, purchased from “Mel” via Snapchat, about forty-five minutes before the crash.
Investigators with the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force observed Leach conduct two separate drug deals at his residence on October 11th, 2022. Both buyers were underage boys who left in different vehicles that were each stopped for traffic violations a short time later. During one stop, investigators located three blue pills marked “M30” and were informed by one of the occupants in the vehicle that the pills were supplied by “Mel”.
A search warrant was granted and executed at Leach’s Shanklin Avenue residence on that same day. Leach reportedly exited the home and was taken into custody. Items seized during the search include 33 blue pills marked “M30”, a digital scale, two 9mm pistols, and roughly $1,843 in cash.
