LEE COUNTY, Fla. — The State Attorney's Office is charging a man with murder, accusing him of giving a woman fentanyl, which they say killed her.
According to State Attorney Amira Fox, in late October 2023, Anthony Michael Hicks sold a 25-year-old woman a fentanyl pill. However, Fox says the victim thought it was a Percocet. Fox says the woman died, and Hicks unlawfully gave her fentanyl that caused death or was a substantial factor in it.
"If I can prove it and you sell or distribute a controlled substance to somebody and it kills them or is a substantial factor in there death, I can and will prosecute you for first-degree capital murder," Fox said.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office says they responded to a possible overdose at the Spectra Apartments in south Fort Myers. Through the investigation, detectives said the victim had done a drug transaction with Hicks.
According to court records, Hicks was arrested on October 27, 2023 for the trafficking fentanyl of four grams or more and possession of a firearm in commission of a crime.
The police report says Hicks was selling narcotics at the Days Inn on Tamiami Trial in Fort Myers.
Deputies followed Hicks and pulled him over. When they searched his car, the report says they found two guns and a bag of blue pills.
Through a "drug identifier application," Lee County deputies say they found Oxycodone Hydrochloride pills, which they say are commonly pressed with one or more substances containing fentanyl.
Through the investigation, detectives determined the pills matched the one given to the woman. They also found evidence of a Cash App transaction for the drug.
A Lee County Sheriff's spokesperson says when they got the warrant for Hicks after the indictment on Tuesday night, they arrested him at a Collier County gym.
Hicks is also charged with unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, along with the murder charge.
