64°F
weather icon Mostly Cloudy

Man faces murder charge in teen’s fentanyl overdose death

Updated June 16, 2022 - 4:53 pm

A man is facing a murder charge in the fentanyl overdose death of a teenager in south Las Vegas, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Roy Elkhoury, 27, was booked last month into the Clark County Detention Center on a charge of second-degree murder and a drug-related charge, according to jail logs.

Bail was set at $100,000 during a June 1 hearing, according to court records.

Police alleged that Elkhoury sold an unidentified 16-year-old girl fentanyl-laced pills on March 4, while she was staying the night at a friend’s apartment.

She texted Elkhoury and had him deliver purported Percocet pills to the apartment complex, along with Xanax tablets for her friend, police said.

Early the next morning, the friend’s father arrived home to find the teenager overdosing in his living room, police said. His daughter had been sleeping in her bedroom.

The Clark County coroner’s office said Sofia Harrara died at St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Siena Campus, from the combined effects of fentanyl, bupropion and aripiprazole.

A preliminary toxicology report showed that the teenager had 44 nanograms of fentanyl in her body, according to police. A medical examiner has testified that the drug can be fatal in much lower doses.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that authorities say is increasingly being pressed into counterfeit prescription pills and sold to unsuspecting victims, is described as being many times stronger than morphine.

Synthetic opioids contributed to two-thirds of the roughly 107,000 overdose deaths in 2021 in the U.S., which recorded an all-time high total number, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Out of the 801 overdose deaths in Clark County last year, 227 were due to fentanyl, according to Metro numbers, which show that 10 people under age 18 were killed by the drug.

To combat the rise, in 2021 Metro established a task force that investigates overdose deaths and is increasingly pursuing murder cases against alleged dealers.

Detectives spoke to Elkhoury after his arrest, and he said he knew the Percocet pills he was accused of selling contained fentanyl, but that so did his buyers, according to his arrest report.

He said he offered the teenage victim Narcan, the brand name of naloxone, which serves as an antidote to reverse opioid overdoses, the report stated.

Harrara’s friend told police that the dealer had offered them the Narcan when he showed up at the complex to sell the pills, police said.

Attorney Charles Goodwin, who is representing Elkhoury, declined to comment Wednesday, adding that he had to first speak to his client.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.

THE LATEST
 
2 women killed in North Las Vegas shooting

Two women were found shot to death in a North Las Vegas neighborhood, according to police.