Authorities call it a landmark case for Tangipahoa Parish after a man was arrested and booked with murder in connection with a fatal fentanyl overdose.
The Hammond Police Department announced yesterday that 26 YO Trystan McMillion was arrested in Livingston Parish and booked into the Tangipahoa Parish Jail on one count each of second-degree murder, distribution of fentanyl and distribution of marijuana for his role in the death of 27 YO Nicholas Platt earlier this year.
During a press conference Hammond Police Chief Edwin Bergeron Jr. said it is the first time in Tangipahoa Parish that someone is facing a murder charge over a fentanyl overdose.
Hammond police officers found Platt dead in a home on Joe Iverstine Drive on Jan. 26.
An investigation launched by the region’s recently formed Fentanyl Overdose Response Team, one of 22 DEA-led groups across the U.S. aimed at cracking down on fentanyl, concluded that the notoriously potent synthetic opioid was involved in Platt’s death. McMillion is accused of selling Platt the narcotics that ultimately killed him.
Since the local Fentanyl Overdose Response Team was formed in early January, the group has seized 8 pounds of fentanyl, according to DEA Special Agent Paul Seal. That equates to about 365,000 deadly doses of fentanyl, Seal said, nearly enough to kill everyone living in Tangipahoa and St. Tammany parishes.
