One of five teenagers who prosecutors say were part of a Washington County drug-dealing chain pleaded guilty to third-degree murder Friday in the overdose death of a Woodbury girl.
Cole A. Matenaer, 19, of Woodbury, pleaded guilty to providing a designer psychedelic drug similar to LSD that killed 17-year-old Tara Fitzgerald on Jan. 11, just hours after she took it.
Fitzgerald, a Woodbury High School junior who had been in good spirits after posting a strong score on a college-readiness exam, died from an overdose of the substance known as 25i-NBOMe, sometimes called "N-Bomb" or "Smiles," according to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The unusual case reflects the growing alarm among law officers that the dealing of dangerous drugs, especially to youths, has reached crisis proportions in Washington County, across the metro area and elsewhere in Minnesota.
Washington County prosecutors have taken a hard line in their approach to prosecuting crimes involving drug overdoses and synthetic drugs, including targeting the supply chain of those drugs. Three of those charged in Fitzgerald's case were 17 at the time charges were filed and were certified as adults for prosecution.
"When an illegal drug enters our community, all of those involved — those who create it, sell it or give it away — are responsible for what happens with that drug," Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said in May.
Fitzgerald and a girlfriend who was staying overnight each placed a dose on their tongues for 20 minutes and then swallowed it. Police later found that the girls' cellphones contained videos of them under the influence of the drug, according to a criminal complaint filed in May.
The girlfriend called her mother the next morning when she heard Fitzgerald moaning. The mother called 911 and then Fitzgerald's parents — Tom Fitzgerald and Mai Hoang Fitzgerald — at work. They hurried home, but it was too late.
