Two Harrisonburg residents, one a former James Madison University student, received hefty prison sentences today for their part in a Northern Virginia high school student’s death due to fentanyl poisoning.
Liam Conaway, 24, who admitted to obtaining the fentanyl, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
Bessy Jimenez Mejia, 27, who admitted to being the source of supply for the fentanyl, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
The charges stem from the 2023 fentanyl poisoning death of Cayden David Foster, 18, of Centreville. Foster died after taking a fake Percocet pill laced with the potent drug.
According to court documents, in January 2023, Foster reached out to Conaway, who was a student at James Madison University, to purchase pills. Conaway and Foster had previously consumed pills together during Conaway’s academic break from JMU.
On Jan. 27, 2023, Foster sent Conaway $105 through Venmo to pay for the drugs. Conaway purchased approximately 10 pills from his supplier, Jimenez Mejia, in Harrisonburg.
The pills Conaway purchased from Jimenez Mejia appeared as though they were 30 mg Percocet pills but were in fact counterfeit and contained fentanyl.
Two days later, a friend delivered three pills to Foster in Northern Virginia.
On Jan. 30, 2023, Foster consumed a portion of one of the pills purchased from Conaway. That night, Foster died from fentanyl poisoning. First responders arrived at Foster’s home the next morning and pronounced Foster deceased.
“Our families are enduring the tragedy of losing loved ones, all due to greedy criminals like Jimenez Mejia and Conaway,” said Christopher Goumenis, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency Washington division. “For them, fentanyl is merely a business; they lack concern for human lives and the well-being of our children.”
The DEA and the Fairfax County Police Department investigated the case.
According to the DEA, fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine. It is mixed with other illicit drugs to increase the potency of the drug, sold as powders and nasal sprays, and increasingly pressed into pills made to look like legitimate prescription opioids.
Distributing fentanyl that results in death carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, according to the Department of Justice.
On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order classifying “illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals” as weapons of mass destruction. It’s unclear what effect the EO will have on laws though some experts believe it is intended to levy a death sentence on related offenses.