Woman to face jury in Las Vegas murder case tied to fatal overdose

A Las Vegas judge found Tuesday that prosecutors had enough evidence for a woman to stand trial on a charge of second-degree murder, stemming from an opioid overdose that left another 21-year-old dead earlier this year.

Aria Styron, 21, also faces a felony count of selling or transporting a controlled substance.

At a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, Styron’s ex-boyfriend testified that he knew Styron was going to sell oxycodone pills to Adrianna Folks, who died on March 4.

“That testimony alone is very sufficient,” Justice of the Peace Joseph Sciscento said before ordering Styron to appear in District Court.

Styron is accused of selling Folks counterfeit prescription pills that later tested positive for fentanyl. Las Vegas police have said that Folks’ father found her dead inside her bedroom.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is said to be up to 100 times stronger than morphine. More than 170 Nevadans have been killed by the drug this year, according to records maintained by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Monday’s hearing, originally set to begin at 9 a.m., was delayed until the late afternoon due to an unfounded bomb threat that forced a building-wide evacuation at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas.

According to Dr. Ben Murie, a medical examiner for the Clark County coroner’s office who performed Folks’ autopsy, the woman died of fentanyl toxicity. He ruled her manner of death an accident.

In his testimony Monday, the doctor said that 26 nanograms per milliliter of fentanyl had been found in Folks’ blood. Over the course of his career, during which he has performed approximately 400 autopsies, Murie said he has seen cases of lethal doses of fentanyl as low as 3 nanograms per milliliter.

Throughout the hearing, Styron, dressed in dark blue jail garb, nervously bounced her right leg, the chains around her ankles clinking. She has been in custody at the Clark County Detention Center since her arrest on Oct. 21, jail records show.

In cross-examination, Styron’s attorney, T. Augustus Claus, questioned why the doctor did not rule Folks’ death a suicide, pointing to old scars on her body that he said appeared to be self-inflicted and an apparent prior suicide attempt when Folks was a teenager.

“Would it be safe to say that in this particular autopsy of this body, your manner of death came down to largely two choices: either suicide or accident?” Claus asked. “Is that correct?”

“That’s correct,” Dr. Murie said.

Following several objections from prosecutors, the judge allowed Claus to continue his line of questioning but noted that the allegations against his client were focused on “where the fentanyl came from, not whether or how it was ingested.”

The judge also heard from Tasha Olson, a Las Vegas police crime scene analyst who documented the scene of Folks’ overdose. According to Olson, the woman was found dead in a first-floor bedroom of her parents’ home. The door, which had been locked, was damaged after Folks’ father kicked it open to check on his daughter.

A lighter was found in her hand, Olson said, and next to Folks’ body were charred aluminum foil, a paper clip, a toothpick and a partially smoked blue pill, which authorities say was purchased from the defendant.

Authorities have said they believe Folks was aware that she was in possession of pills cut with fentanyl. According to Styron’s arrest report, on the evening before Folks was found dead, she had taken to Reddit, a popular online forum, to highlight her experiences with the drug, writing that she was “nodding” in and out of consciousness.

Still, authorities in Southern Nevada have increasingly been pursuing murder charges against suspects accused of providing fatal drug doses. Styron is at least the third suspect facing such charges this year.

Styron was ordered back in court on Nov. 12.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.