A Picton man has been found guilty of manslaughter and trafficking of an opioid in relation to an overdose death last spring.
Justice Geoffrey Griffin found Picton man Thomas Fox guilty of the charges in Picton court on Wednesday following a two hour summation of the evidence presented during the trial.
Fox, who was 33 at the time, was charged in July 2019 in relation to the overdose death of 34-year-old Travis Rosseau on March 11, 2019 in Hallowell Township.
Justice Griffin told the court it was clear beyond a reasonable doubt that Fox sold Rosseau the Carfentanil which led to his death and he should be held responsible.
He said this was a very sad case of a man who had a drug problem, but based on the confirmatory evidence presented during trial he felt a guilty verdict was warranted.
Justice Griffin said the Facebook messages between Fox and Rosseau setting up the deal, Rosseau’s actions of going to a variety store to get some cash from the ATM and a short cab ride to Fox’s home before returning to his own residence on Loyalist Parkway all line up with the evidence provided by Rosseau’s girlfriend at the time.
He told the court Rosseau was looking for hydromorphone but Fox didn’t have any and instead gave him purple powder he called Fentanyl, which later turned out to be Carfentanil.
Justice Griffin says there are eight to 12 hours that can’t be accounted for by any members of the home as they were all sleeping, but he did not believe Rosseau left the home to go procure more drugs.
Rosseau was found by his girlfriend late in the morning of March 11 on the floor beside their bed. She believed he was overdosing but paramedics, and firefighters that were called to the scene, had noted he was cold to the touch and rigor had set in, leading them to believe he had been dead for some time.
A toxicology report conducted with the postmortem showed he had .22 nanograms of Carfentinal per litre of blood.
Hastings County Assistant Crown Attorney Adam Zegouras said he was happy the judge came to the conclusion which the Crown believed Fox was guilty of.
He said this was a somewhat unique case as the opioid crisis has made cases like this more and more common.
Zegouras asked for a couple of weeks to come up with a range for sentencing because of the complicated nature of this case and he wanted to do some research before presenting the court with their sentencing recommendations.
Defence attorney Mark Snyder also asked for a pre-sentence report.
Justice Griffin also found Fox guilty of possession of methamphetamine, instead of possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, which he was additionally charged with in July.
Fox earlier in the trial pleaded guilty to a breach of recognizance.
He is due back in court on November 4 for sentencing.
