A Tennessee woman is facing murder charges after she visited an inmate in prison, kissed him, and transferred drugs from her mouth to her boyfriend’s mouth. Hours later, the inmate was dead from a drug overdose.
Rachal Dollard, 33, was charged with second-degree murder and introduction of contraband into a penal colony. Dollard visited the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) to visit inmate Joshua Brown.
Authorities did not know Dollard had hidden a small balloon, filled with methamphetamine, in her mouth. Dollard allegedly passed the drugs to Brown when the pair were kissing.
After the kiss, Dollard swallowed the tiny drug-filled balloon that was filled with half an ounce of methamphetamine. The balloon broke inside his body, however, and he died from an overdose.
Brown was serving an eleven-year prison sentence on drug-related charges. The TDOC said Brown’s intentions were to retrieve the drug pellet from the toilet.
The balloon ruptured in his body before he could retrieve it, leaving Brown dead of an overdose.
David Imhof, the Director of the TDOC Office of Investigations and Conduct, released a statement about the deadly kiss.
"This incident points to the real dangers of introducing contraband into prisons and the consequences that follow," said Imhof. "Our agency will pursue prosecution against any individual who threatens the safety and security of our staff, the men and women in our custody, and our facilities."
Deaths due to overdose are trending upwards in numbers in courtrooms across the US, as prosecutors take advantage of laws allowing them to charge drug dealers, partners, friends, family members and others accountable for fatal overdoses.
Those accused of murder may include partygoers, friends or people who share their drugs at a party when someone overdoses and dies from an overdose. New laws do not require overdose deaths to be intentional, so prosecutors can charge numerous people accountable.
In an investigation by The New York Times, reporters found that there have been over 1,000 prosecutions or arrests for “accidental overdose deaths since 2015.” But from 2015 through 2017, those cases charging people for accidental overdose deaths doubled. The New York Times investigation reports that prosecutions against people involved in overdose deaths occurred in about 36 states, where the dependents were charged with first, second or third-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter.
Though some cases charged people who were present when the person died of an overdose, in other cases the people charged were not there during the overdose. Even for those who may have tried to save the person from overdosing, via injecting Narcan or doing CPR, prosecutors could still charge them with involuntary manslaughter or murder because of laws against providing drugs or sharing drugs with others.
Currently in the US, twenty states have laws on the books where providing drugs or helping someone get drugs that lead to death are crimes. In many states, prosecutors rely upon their existing homicide statutes to prosecute cases against friends, family, or fellow users, when a person overdoses and dies.
States where drug death by overdose laws are considered a homicide by friends, family, or others include Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Dollard is currently being held in the Hickman County jail in Tennessee awaiting her court date to face murder charges.
