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Man who sold fentanyl sentenced in overdose death
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Roderick Means asked for forgiveness just before he was sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to five years in prison for providing the drugs a woman used that resulted in her death.
As he was escorted out of the courtroom of Judge Lou D’Apolito on Tuesday by deputy sheriffs, the victim’s sister looked at him and said, “I forgive you.”
Means, 33, pleaded guilty Feb. 2 to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Melanie Anderson, 41, in April 2016, who took a dose of what she thought was heroin. It was actually fentanyl, a high-risk, synthetic opioid painkiller many times more powerful than heroin and morphine.
Anderson’s sister, Sherry, tearfully told the judge her sister helped her get through, and later cope with, a rough childhood and she feels lost without her.
“I have the weight of the world on my shoulders,” she said. “I feel terrified and frozen inside.”
The dose Anderson brought was 100 percent fentanyl. Sometimes some dealers or users will mix fentanyl with heroin, but in this case, that did not happen.
Three days after she died, investigators used Anderson’s cellphone to text Means and ask for a “reload,” or more drugs, and set up a time and place to meet him.
Instead, it was members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force who met Means and took him into custody. The drugs he brought with him to that meeting also were pure fentanyl.
Means told investigators he had no idea the drugs he was selling contained only fentanyl. Means blamed the mix-up on a family member.
Anderson’s sister said she was not sure if jail was the answer for Means, but she did say she did not want anyone to experience her pain.
“I’m not sure what jail does inside for a man,” she said. “I don’t want anyone else to feel the way I felt when I found out my sister died.”
Means apologized directly to Anderson’s family, saying he also lost a friend when Anderson died.
“I’m really sorry about all this. She was my friend,” Means said. “It was not like I intentionally gave her something to kill her. I hope y’all do forgive me.”
Judge D’Apolito said a message has to be sent that if people sell drugs, they need to know they will be held accountable if someone dies. He said he thought Means was remorseful, but the judge said he must also be punished.