Atlantic City, NJ drug dealer sentenced for causing fatal overdose of Evesham, NJ woman

A drug dealer from Atlantic City has been given a New Jersey state prison sentence for selling an Evesham woman heroin laced with fentanyl that led to her overdose and death on December 14, 2019.

Kahlil Carpenter, 31, who was indicted in July of 2021, pleaded guilty in July of 2022 to First Degree Strict Liability for Drug-Induced Death as part of an agreement with the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office in exchange for the prison term of seven-years behind bars, according to Prosecutor LaChia Bradshaw.

As is unfortunately the case in many of these overdose deaths, the Evesham woman was sold the lethal concoction of heroin mixed with fentanyl one day -- in Lumberton Township in this case -- and was found dead the next day.

Evesham Police responded to a home on Inverness Circle on December 14, 2019 to find the woman, Holly Morris, unconscious and unresponsive in her bed.

Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood performed the autopsy on Morris and confirmed she died from fentanyl toxicity, "with levels in her system five times greater than the amount necessary to cause death", according to Prosecutor Bradshaw.

“Fentanyl has destroyed so many families and devastated several of our communities,” Prosecutor Bradshaw said in a written statement. “We must take extraordinary measures to offer protection against such harmful, and often deadly, effects.”

Carpenter was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Michael Angermeier, supervisor of the Gang, Gun and Narcotics Task Force.