MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas — A man will spend 50 years behind bars after he sold the fentanyl to a disabled U.S. Army veteran, which led to his overdose death, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
On Monday, July 21, a jury convicted 37-year-old James Carter-Smith, Jr., of murder under Texas’s fentanyl murder statute, which took effect in 2023. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Carter-Smith was accused of selling fentanyl to disabled U.S. Army veteran Justin Fortin, 34. Fortin, a former paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, had been through two deployments in Iraq. Prosecutors said Fortin suffered from PTSD and chronic pain from his service…