Drug dealer arrested after spike in Central Kentucky overdoses, deaths learns sentence
A Danville drug dealer arrested in the wake of several overdose deaths has been sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Carl Wayne Bartleson, 46, faced an enhanced sentence because of his criminal record, which included four prior drug-trafficking convictions, according to a court document.
Bartleson will have to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence because there is no parole in the federal court system.
Chief U.S. District Judge Karen K. Caldwell sentenced Bartleson last week.
A jury convicted Bartleson of conspiring to distribute heroin and fentanyl and four counts of distribution of heroin and fentanyl.
In a period of a few days in February 2017, three people died of drug overdoses in Boyle County and several others overdosed but were revived by first responders, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Robert M. Duncan Jr.
Many ambulance crews and police in Kentucky carry naloxone. Naloxone, which can reverse an overdose of heroin or fentanyl, are in a class of drugs called opioids.
The Boyle County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration combined to investigate the spike in overdoses.
That investigation led to the indictment against Bartleson, according to Duncan.
Bartleson, also known as Karl Wayne Bartleson Jr., was accused of being a significant supplier of heroin, fentanyl and acrylfentanyl, and even more potent drug, to dealers in Boyle and Lincoln counties.
Bartleson’s drug distribution likely caused the fatal overdose of one woman and the near-fatal overdoses of two other people, according to a prosecution memorandum.
“This is yet another example of the tragic impact that heroin, fentanyl, and other powerful opioids are having on our community,” Duncan said.
This story was originally published March 4, 2019 at 7:43 AM.
