Drug dealer from Detroit sentenced to life in prison after overdose kills Ky. veteran
A Detroit man who was convicted of selling drugs that caused the death of an Army veteran in Kentucky was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Shannon D. Hixon, 43, was convicted in federal court in Lexington in July of distribution of fentanyl resulting in an overdose death and conspiring to distribute oxycodone and fentanyl.
Hixon supplied heroin and fentanyl to a group of drug users in Lexington, and he gave a lethal quality of fentanyl to an Army veteran who was in rehab, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The victim was identified as K.F.
Hixon also supplied thousands of 30 mg oxycodone tablets to two people in Lexington who then took them to Morehead and Salyersville and sold them to drug dealers and users in those places, according to the release.
In May 2004, Hixon had been convicted in Fayette Circuit Court of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release announcing the sentence.
“The defendant, and other drug dealers who illegally distribute opioids, help fuel addictions and spread misery and death,” U.S. Attorney Robert M. Duncan Jr. said in the release. “Our office has no greater priority than holding drug traffickers, particularly repeat offenders like the defendant, accountable for their criminal conduct. Because of his prior drug trafficking conviction, and because his drug dealing caused an overdose death, the defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 4:09 PM.
