Elijah Tee McLeroy Guilty Of Manslaughter For Selling Fentanyl That Killed 16-Year-Old

A 24-year-old man was found guilty of Manslaughter Wednesday for selling a fentanyl-laced pill to a 16-year-old who overdosed and died in 2022, State Attorney, Larry Basford, announced.

Elijah Tee McLeroy, who was 21 when he sold what the victim thought were pain pills at a beach party, was found guilty after more than 4 hours of deliberation. Prosecutor Peter Overstreet asked for the maximum sentence, and Circuit Court Judge Timothy Register agreed, giving McLeroy a total of 20 years in prison on the second-degree felony and a violation of probation charge.

Overstreet said the guilty verdict and sentence send a clear message to drug dealers as the country struggles with the deadly fentanyl epidemic.

“If you sell fentanyl in this Circuit, in this case by passing it off as a painkiller, and someone overdoses and dies, you are facing the possibility of ending up in prison for a long, long time,” he said. “It is a highly potent and dangerous drug that is taking innocent lives. We will not tolerate it.”

The overdose death of the 16-year-old victim in this case highlighted one of fentanyl’s many dangers – because it is cheap and potent, drug dealers often use it to make pills that appear to be authentic painkillers like Oxycodone or Percocet but are cheap knockoffs.

McLeroy’s victim thought he was buying Percocet, a painkiller, but he and some friends were instead given pills with fentanyl. One overdosed and survived after going to the hospital and another became ill.

The victim’s mother found him dead in his bed the next morning. “I want you to know the impact of what you’ve done,” the victim’s mother wrote to McElroy in a statement read before sentencing. “You didn’t just take Brayden from me – you took my future, my peace, and a part of my soul. You didn’t just end one life – you shattered so many others. 

“Our family will never be the same,” she continued. “The pain and emptiness you caused will last for the rest of my life.”

Overstreet called witnesses ranging from the victim’s mother and friends who were with him that night, to Panama City Beach Police Department officers and investigators who handled the case. 

 The evidence compiled and shown to jurors by Overstreet proved the victim and his friends were on the sandy beach near Pier Park on July 21, 2022, when they purchased the pills in separate transactions from McLeroy. The victim was found dead in his bed the following morning by his mother.

 His friends, using the same app (Snapchat) that they used to find McElroy when he posted “Shop Open” from his “Enokthegoat2” account during the beach party, warned the dozens of people who had been in the group chat not to buy or use McElroy’s drugs.

 They posted screengrabs, which they later provided police, that included: a $120 payment for 6 of the pills that night, a picture of McLeroy, a picture of the pills, and a video of them flushing the remaining pills down the toilet.

 Police retrieved that information and more from cellphone downloads.

 “They were diming (McLeroy) out, telling people, ‘Don’t buy what he’s selling,’” Overstreet said. “Why? Because they knew they were deadly and had killed their friend.”

 Overstreet asked jurors to use their common sense, not emotions, and to look at the evidence.

 “We all did dumb things when we were kids,” he said. “Many of us have kids who do dumb things. But (the victim) didn’t deserve to die for his mistakes, he didn’t deserve the death penalty.”

 Basford thanked the Panama City Beach Police Department for its work on the case, and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their collaboration.