ROCKINGHAM — A woman was recently charged under a new law that holds those who sell illegal drugs responsible in the case of the buyer’s death.
According to an arrest warrant, 20-year-old Regina Danielle Collins “without malice” sold a controlled substance Thursday to Chance Lamont Lammonds.
The ingestion of the unnamed controlled substance was the cause or proximate cause of Lammonds’ death, according to the warrant.
No other details were available from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office on Friday.
Collins was arrested and charged with a single felony count of death by distribution and booked into the Richmond County Jail under a $75,000 secured bond. She is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 13.
Collins was convicted last February on one misdemeanor count each of possessing stolen goods and financial card fraud, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.
Her only other conviction was for resisting a public officer in 2016.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The death by distribution law was signed by Gov. Roy Cooper July 8, 2019 and went into effect Dec. 1.
Sen. Tom McInnis and Rep. Scott Brewer both voted to approve the bill in their respective chambers, legislative records show.
The intent of the law is to “to act as a greater deterrent to persons who want to illegally distribute opioids and further exacerbate the opioid epidemic,” following a dramatic increase in overdose deaths over the past 20 years, according to the text.
The controlled substances covered by the law include opiates, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Doctors and pharmacists are shielded from prosecution under the law.
The Wilmington StarNews reported last summer that the state already had a law in place to charge drug dealers with second-degree murder, but the new law doesn’t require prosecutors to prove malice.
The bill was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
