Who sold the fatal dose? Deputies charge Boynton man with murder after 2022 overdose death

WEST PALM BEACH — A week after ending his 12th stint in rehab, a 31-year-old man bid his mother good night and retreated into his bedroom, a white pill tucked somewhere out of sight. She found him dead the next evening.

His fatal overdose would have likely been considered an accident had it happened years earlier, but a trail of calls between the man and his suspected dealer — as well as a recent push by Florida lawmakers to hold peddlers accountable for drug users' deaths — morphed it into something else.

Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies charged 32-year-old Nso "Solo" Solage with premeditated murder last week after identifying him as the man they believe sold the fatal dose. Investigators say the drug contained fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin.

Solage joins a growing list of Palm Beach County residents charged with murder in the wake of customer fatal overdoses. The county State Attorney's Office has yet to convict anyone of first-degree murder this way, opting instead to resolve cases with plea deals to lesser offenses.

First-degree murder carries a punishment of life in prison or the death penalty.

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Confidential informant, cellphone data pointed deputies in suspected dealer's direction

The challenge in prosecuting cases like these is proving beyond a doubt where the fatal dose came from. Without a witness to point fingers, or incriminating text messages left on the victim’s phone, overdoses rarely culminate in an arrest for murder.

In Solage's case, deputies had a version of both. A tipster, whose name and gender are redacted from the arrest report, told investigators Solage sold them drugs on Sept. 28, 2022 — the day before the man was found dead in his bedroom.

According to the tipster, Solage asked about the man, whose name is also redacted from the arrest report. Solage sounded like he wanted to make a sale, the informant said. The tipster said he warned him not to, given that the man had been released from a drug-treatment center one week prior.

Deputies say Solage ignored the warning. The unnamed man made several calls on his grandmother's phone to a number registered to Solage that same evening. According to his arrest report, Solage drove from his home in Boynton Beach toward the house where the man was staying, his geolocation data just one piece of evidence collected over the near-yearlong investigation.

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Deputies paid the tipster for their cooperation and enlisted the person to buy 24 fentanyl capsules from Solage over several months. Solage made the sales while out of jail on bond for a separate drug sale charge. During one of the undercover sales, deputies say Solage asked about the whereabouts of the deceased man, who he said still owed him $20.

The tipster said only that the man was "away."

Solage faces three counts of the sale of fentanyl in addition to the first-degree murder charge.

Tough-on-drug approach is a topic of national debate

Solage's arrest points to a growing rift between old and new schools of thought playing out in courtrooms across the United States: Can drug dealers be blamed for another person's overdose?

At one end of the debate are grieving families who want someone to pay for their loved one's death. At the other are those who say that imprisoning street-level dealers does nothing to stanch the flow of drugs in America, and may even deter people from calling 911 when they witness an overdose.

Lawmakers are caught somewhere in the middle.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg promised in 2018 to "aggressively charge drug dealers who spread deadly fentanyl-laced heroin" and subsequently indicted a handful of people on first-degree murder charges.

Calvin Warren Jr. was the first. Facing life in prison for the 2017 overdose of Travis Tekel, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder instead for a 22-year prison sentence.

Vicki Sakers was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in the 2017 overdose death of her friend Candace Moreland; she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to three years of probation.

So did Joreel Sine, who sold Sakers the drug. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for manslaughter last year. Prosecutors indicted Jamel Roseau in 2021 on two counts of first-degree murder for the overdose deaths of Holland Harriss and Michael Edgell. His case remains open.

Solage, who is represented by the county Public Defender's Office, is due in court next at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 18. As a policy, the office does not comment on open cases.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boynton Beach man linked to fatal overdose, arrested on murder charge