By TIM SPEARS
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Law enforcement in Hamilton County say a recent law meant to help crack down on the fentanyl crisis is getting investigators closer to the source of drugs flooding Indiana.
A judge on Thursday morning sentenced Larry Collins Jr. to 40 years in prison for dealing the drugs that resulted in the death of Andrew Kitt. Collins, of Michigan City, was 52 when arrested in May.
Investigators say Collins was a known dealer, selling drugs on the corner of West 38th Street and High School Road in Indianapolis. According to prosecuting documents, Collins sold cocaine and fentanyl to a man on Nov. 4. That man took the drugs to Westfield, sharing with Kitt, who then died of an overdose.
Indiana adopted a new law in 2018 allowing prosecutors to press felony charges for dealing in a controlled substance resulting in death.
Josh Kocher, Hamilton County chief deputy prosecutor, believes the Collins case is significant because Collins never personally delivered the drugs to Kitt.
“We believe [Collins] was further up the food chain if not multiple steps up the food chain,” Kocher said.
While the 2018 law targets “a person who knowingly or intentionally manufactures or delivers a controlled substance … [resulting] in the death of a human being,” Kocher said prosecutors charged Collins because the law does not specify the dealer had to personally deliver the drugs to the victim.
“I don’t believe there is a limit to how far up the distribution chain we could go,” Kocher said.
Kocher said Collins’ prosecution and others like it give investigators a reason to track the source of the drug trade, even if it leads them out of the county.
Without commenting specifically on the Collins case, the Indiana Public Defender Council has criticized the dealing resulting in death law for being overly broad. A spokesperson for the council said, as written, punishments could be piled on users, instead of being applied to people driving the drug trade.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says just two milligrams of illicit fentanyl can be fatal. It’s often mixed with other drugs to increase potency.
Westfield Police Detective Sgt. Wade Burtron said, “I think fentanyl is prevalent. It’s almost taken over for heroin.”
Burtron is part of Westfield Police Department’s special investigations unit, which tracked Kitt’s death to Collins. He sees fentanyl as a uniquely dangerous drug because of its lethality. “The person going around profiting from dealing poison to their community needs to be held accountable.”
The detective said, “If you are bringing your product here or selling to Westfield residents, we are going to exhaust every resource we have to find you.”
Excluding suicides, Hamilton County has recorded 75 overdose deaths since 2023, according to the coroner’s office.
Hamilton County prosecutors have filed 14 dealing causing death cases. Ten have resulted in guilty verdicts; four are still pending.
News 8 reached out to the listed attorney for Collins but did not hear back by Thursday afternoon.
This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/i-team-8/indiana-fentanyl-dealer-sentenced.