Drug Dealer Indicted On Murder Charge In Overdose Death Of 33-Year-Old DeBary Woman

Date Added: September 05, 2018 4:56 pm

Andrew Gant
Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations

DRUG DEALER INDICTED ON MURDER CHARGE IN OVERDOSE DEATH OF 33-YEAR-OLD DEBARY WOMAN

A drug dealer who supplied a DeBary woman with the fentanyl and cocaine that caused her death in a February 2018 overdose case was indicted today on a charge of first-degree murder.

A grand jury indicted Hunter Romaine, 24 (DOB 9/19/1994), of DeBary, as a result of a lengthy Volusia County Sheriff's Office investigation into the Feb. 1 death of 33-year-old Ashley Barrett.

Barrett died at Romaine's address (157 Cypress Drive in DeBary) after he supplied her with cocaine and what he thought was heroin. Text message records detailed how Barrett arranged for Romaine to pick her up and bring her back to his house to use the drugs.

Toxicology results indicated Barrett had fentanyl, acetyl-fentanyl and cocaine in her system when she died.

Sheriff's detectives determined Romaine cleaned up the scene after Barrett's overdose, stashed the drugs and paraphernalia and made contact with a neighbor before requesting any medical assistance for the victim.

"The penalty for having an addiction is not death," Sheriff Mike Chitwood said after announcing the indictment Wednesday afternoon. "The dealers out there who are peddling poison to addicts need to be looking over their shoulder, because we are going to do everything we can to take them off the streets and into a cage."

The investigation also led to a Feb. 1 buy-bust operation that resulted in the arrests of two area heroin dealers, father and son:

Salvatore "Sal" DeSantis III, 49 (DOB 3/5/1968), DeBary, charged with principal to sale of heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute, and possession of narcotic paraphernalia. He posted $10,000 bond and was released from jail in April, pending trial.

Salvatore "Daniel" DeSantis IV, 21 (DOB 5/5/1996), DeBary, charged with sale and delivery of heroin. He pleaded no contest to his charge in March and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, where he is currently incarcerated.