Las Vegas man sentenced to 20 years for fentanyl offense in Utah
A Las Vegas man linked to two fentanyl deaths as a juvenile was sentenced Thursday in Utah to 20 years in prison for distribution of a controlled substance that resulted in serious bodily injury.
Colin Andrew Shapard, 23, pleaded guilty in December, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Salt Lake City.
Prosecutors said fentanyl that Shapard shipped via U.S. mail nearly killed a Park City, Utah, resident after the man overdosed in 2022.
According to court documents, the resident told investigators that in 2016, Shapard was the person who supplied a dangerous synthetic opioid to two 13-year-old middle school students in Park City who died as a result of ingesting the substance.
Shapard was charged in juvenile court for the deaths of the two teens, and those offenses were processed through the juvenile court system, as Shapard was a juvenile at the time.
In February 2022, the Park City resident was found on the floor unresponsive by his father. The father called 911 and began CPR. When emergency medical personnel arrived, they administered naloxone, also referred to as Narcan, to the victim. Narcan is a drug that reverses the effects of opioids, including fentanyl, and is effective only on opioids. The victim was hospitalized and survived.
The following day, DEA agents discovered that the victim had overdosed on blue M30 fentanyl pills, which were purchased from Shapard. On March 8, 2022, Shapard was arrested.
“Community safety is a top priority for my office,” U.S. Attorney Trina Higgins of the District of Utah said in a statement. “Shapard not only knowingly sold dangerous synthetic opioids, but he did so while deceiving his customers about the nature of the product. Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. Had it not been for the quick response from the victim’s family and the fast acting first responders who administered Narcan this would have been a more tragic outcome.”
Contact Tony Garcia at tgarcia@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307. Follow @TonyGLVNews on X.
