A 21-year-old has been charged with death by distribution after a juvenile died earlier this month of an overdose in Cornelius, according to police.
On July 1, police received a call around 3:15 p.m. about a possible overdose, the Cornelius Police Department said in a news release. When officers arrived they learned a juvenile was dead.
Detectives identified 21-year-old Ehsanullah “Sean” Ayaar as the source of the drugs, police said.
On Monday, Ayaar was arrested and charged with felony death by distribution. He was issued a $100,000 secured bond at the Mecklenburg County jail and was released on Wednesday morning.
Death by distribution is a felony charge in North Carolina in cases where someone sells an illegal drug to someone who dies in an overdose. It was signed into law by the North Carolina legislature in 2019 and carries a maximum sentence of nearly 20 years in prison.
Police and court leaders say death by distribution cases are difficult to prosecute, Mister Truth previously reported.
The threshold for proof in these cases is often hard to reach. To prove someone is responsible for death by distribution, police and prosecutors must show they sold the victim the illegal drug that killed them; the drug was responsible for the victim’s death; and, the victim didn’t have an underlying medical condition triggered by the drug, according to the law.