CLEVELAND: — An alleged fentanyl dealer whose case was dismissed last year on a technicality is once again facing charges for selling a fatal dose that killed a Wadsworth man.
LeTroy Vaughn was indicted this week by a federal grand jury in Cleveland in connection with the death of 25-year-old Eric Ward.
Federal prosecutors are adding a death specification to their drug trafficking indictment filed against Vaughn in December, a month after a Summit County judge dismissed state charges based on a defense motion that prosecutors waited too long to bring Vaughn’s case to court.
“This defendant will be held accountable selling fentanyl that killed someone’s son and friend,” U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman says. “Law enforcement will continue to work together to disrupt the flow of deadly fentanyl into our region and hold accountable those who profit from this epidemic.”
The delay was caused after paperwork Vaughn sent from prison, where he’s serving time on an unrelated case, got lost in the mail at the Akron Municipal Court clerk’s office.
Vaughn’s filing specifically asked that his case be tried within the 180 days required under the U.S. Constitution.
Vaughn, 26, was originally charged by Akron police in March 2016 with involuntary manslaughter.
Vaughn’s speedy trial deadline passed in October 2016 without his case being brought to trial. He wasn’t indicted until February 2017. He requested that the case against him be dismissed in July 2017.
Ward died in September 2015 following an overdose.
Vaughn is currently being held in the Belmont Correctional Institution for drug trafficking in an unrelated case.