Mercer County Man Admits Selling Fentanyl In Fatal Overdose: Prosecutor

A drug dealer from Mercer County admits selling fentanyl to a Bordentown man who died of an overdose on Thanksgiving Day, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced.

Thao Nguyen, 27, of Hamilton Township, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree strict liability for drug-induced death. Nguyen faces five years in New Jersey state prison as part of the deal.

Nguyen has been detained in the Burlington County Jail since being arrested at his home on April 7 following the execution of a search warrant. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 1.

Nguyen admitted that he sold fentanyl to a 25-year-old Bordentown Township resident, who fatally overdosed at his residence on Nov. 24, 2016, Coffina said. An autopsy performed by Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood determined that the death was caused by fentanyl toxicity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain reliever, approved for treating severe pain, typically advanced cancer pain. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.”

Coffina praised the efforts of investigators who traced the drugs from the victim back to Nguyen, and pledged to continue holding dealers accountable for drug-induced deaths.

“All of our law enforcement partners did an outstanding job developing the evidence to hold this defendant accountable for killing his customer with a lethal dose of fentanyl,” Coffina said. “More and more, overdoses are not caused by excessive intake, but by a drug user running into a bad batch. The Drug-Induced Death statute enables law enforcement to hold purveyors of poison like this defendant accountable for the dangerous product they are selling, and these dealers need to recognize that they are no longer facing simple drug charges when they are gambling with people’s lives. Law enforcement across the county will continue to aggressively pursue evidence to support homicide charges like this one in the aftermath of fatal overdoses.”

The case was prosecuted by Burlington County Assistant Prosecutor Jeremy Lackey. It was investigated by the Bordentown Township Police Department, with assistance from the BCPO Gang, Gun and Narcotics Task Force, the BCPO High-Tech Crimes Unit, the Hamilton Township Police Department Tactical Team and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Task Force. The lead investigator was Bordentown Township Detective Josh Pavlov.

The attached image of Thao Nguyen was provided by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office