Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Charges Coming in Deaths of Three Kansas City Chiefs Fans in Friend's Back Yard?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. He didn't take the drugs to get dead. He took, if he took the drugs on his own, he took them to get high. So I think there's more to the story. The families of three Kansas City Chiefs fans found dead outside of their friend's house are desperately searching for answers after reports that the men had cocaine and fentanyl in their systems. Will someone be charged in their deaths? I'm Anjanette Levy. It's Wednesday,

Starting point is 00:00:37 and this is Crime Fix. It's been nearly a month since David Harrington, Ricky Johnson, and Clayton McGeaney were found dead in the backyard of the home of their friend, Jordan Willis. The longtime friends have been partying, watching a Kansas City Chiefs game when something went terribly wrong. Friends and family became concerned when they couldn't reach the three. They were found apparently frozen in the backyard, one of them sitting upright in a chair. Jordan Willis, the homeowner, who is a prominent HIV researcher, answered the door for police, apparently claiming he'd been asleep for two days and didn't know his friends were in the backyard. The circumstances

Starting point is 00:01:17 surrounding the deaths raised a lot of questions, but Kansas City police said from the get-go this was not a homicide investigation. Then last week, distraught family members told News Nation they were briefed on toxicology results that showed the three men had fentanyl and cocaine in their bloodstreams. Here's David Harrington's mom on Cuomo. He didn't take that to die. Something happened between either that was given to him. It just means that there's more to the story. There's more to it than just that. So how did Jordan Willis, the man who rented that home, survive if he took the drugs? He

Starting point is 00:02:00 reportedly claimed he had been asleep for two days. David wasn't a drug addict or anything like that. Peer pressure, you know, Jordan Willis is in rehab. He could have, I don't know, just the peer pressure of taking, you know, hey, I'm going to take this. You guys want some? And they went outside because they were warm or something like that. And, you know, he stayed inside. They went outside and they, you know, passed out outside, maybe. I mean, it's very consistent with fentanyl, right? I mean, what fentanyl does is it slows down your breathing so much that you can very easily pass out and be unaware of the cold. Right, exactly. And then some of those drugs warm your body up and you don't feel cold as

Starting point is 00:02:55 quickly and you can succumb to hypothermia pretty quick. So there are still a lot of questions. You heard David Harrington's mother say Jordan Willis is now in rehab. I reached out to Willis's lawyer and he has not returned my call. We also don't know where the men got the drugs, who provided them, and Kansas City police aren't talking. They will only say this is an ongoing death investigation and they are working with the Platt County Prosecutor's Office and will turn over their findings to them once the investigation is complete. So could the person who provided the drugs, if that is determined to be the ultimate cause of death, face criminal charges? Derek Maltz is the retired director of the DEA Special Operations Division. Derek, what are your thoughts about this case? Well, I have many thoughts.

Starting point is 00:03:45 I mean, I've been actually supporting families around America for the last seven years who are losing their loved ones to fentanyl poisoning. And my immediate thought was when I first heard about this case, it seemed like a classic case of cocaine that was laced with fentanyl. And it's your typical case where people are being deceived to death. Like these fans, they went to a party. They were going to have a good time. They were going to snort some cocaine, maybe smoke some marijuana. They didn't go there planning on dying, but they didn't know that the cocaine contained fentanyl. And that's the problem right now in

Starting point is 00:04:21 America. The illicit drug supply is completely tainted with fentanyl. So people are dying at record levels. And that's the thing. The parents of David Harrington, one of the men who died, said, you know, he wasn't a drug addict and he didn't take drugs if he took them to die. And you don't have to be a drug addict to die from fentanyl. And I think that a lot of people maybe don't understand that. And maybe this was as simple as they were hanging out with their friends. They were partying.

Starting point is 00:04:50 There are people who do use cocaine recreationally, even though it's illegal, but this happens. And it could have been as simple as that. How common is it, Derek, for people who aren't aware of fentanyl, for these drugs like cocaine, marijuana to be cut with fentanyl? Well, if you look behind me, you'll see my wall is loaded with dead kids all over America. I collect these photographs. The family sent me the collages because they're losing about 300 Americans a day from drugs. And most of that is from fentanyl or other synthetic opioids. But the reality is, is that this is a very addictive substance and the cartels are deliberately putting this substance in with other drugs. They're also making the fake

Starting point is 00:05:40 pills, right? So kids that have mental illness or anxiety or depression, they think they're taking Xanax. And in fact, they're taking not Xanax, but fentanyl mixed in a pill that looks like Xanax or Percocet, Oxycontin. Even kids in Ohio State last year, they died when they thought they were taking Adderall, which is very common in college for attention deficit disorder and ADHD. But the reality is, is this is a mass poisoning across the country. And what happened to those poor Americans in Kansas City is not unique. This is happening all over the country. I keep track of this stuff daily. When I testified at the Homeland Security Committee, I attached my document, had 70 pages of these mass poisonings like this all over the country, where multiple people are dropping in one location at one time. And then, you know, people are trying to figure out what's going on.

Starting point is 00:06:40 It's a mass of poisoning using fentanyl. That's the bottom line. And the American public is not, you know, they're not digesting that. They think this is the same old drug issue. That's why these professional athletes, celebrities and role models are not speaking out about it because they don't want to paint their brand of being, you know, these professionals that don't want to get involved in the drug issues, but they're losing off their fans. We're losing a future generation. We're losing military. Young kids as young as, you know, one year old. Look at a kid up in New York. Mom drops him off at the daycare center and she finds out he's dead

Starting point is 00:07:15 because the cartels put the fentanyl on the mats in the daycare center. So there's a lot of people dying from this stuff all over America. It's the worst crisis we ever had when it comes to poisoning of our citizens. We want to thank Morgan & Morgan for sponsoring today's Law & Crime YouTube Takeover. If you've seen our videos, you know Morgan & Morgan is a proud sponsor of ours, and our content proves the world isn't always safe.

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Starting point is 00:08:34 Derek, the thing that gets me is that people hear fentanyl. And if you've ever been into the, in the hospital and for pain, I remember my son had an eye surgery and they wanted to give him fentanyl, right? It's for pain. And I was like, Oh God, no, no, you are not doing that. Cause I was doing stories about the opioid epidemic and stuff like that when I worked in local news. And they're like, no, no, no, this is safe. This is medical grade. So the stuff that's being put in these drugs, like the cocaine and the marijuana, the fentanyl that's being put in there, that is not the stuff they're using in hospitals. This is stuff that correct correct me if I'm wrong, is being cooked up in labs. They're like these clandestine labs. It sounds like something almost out of Breaking Bad.

Starting point is 00:09:15 And it is being put in the drugs, right? 100%. And you did a great job of explaining that, because that's part of the problem with the education out there. Most people are saying, well, I'm not going to take fentanyl. That's for hospitals for pain. But this is illicit fentanyl that's being manufactured in dirty, filthy labs in Mexico and coming right out of the labs in China. And it's getting mixed in different types of drugs, cocaine, meth, and then also, of course, heroin. But we're not seeing a lot of heroin anymore because this is replacing heroin. And then there's been cases of deaths with marijuana containing fentanyl. But the reality

Starting point is 00:09:55 is, is we're well beyond even fentanyl now. The Chinese now are sending, you know, different types of drugs like isonitazine, nitazine, metanitazine, all these different synthetic opioids that are more powerful than actually fentanyl. And then, of course, they're sending xylizine now, which is mixed in with these drugs, which is all over the country. And that's what's known as trank on the street. It's a horse tranquilizer, but it's actually causing necrosis or the rotten of human tissue. So there's a very, very bad educational effort out there. The government is not doing enough. They're not helping the public to understand. And that's why I'm so hopeful that Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey,

Starting point is 00:10:39 Patrick Mahomes, and other NFL and professional superstars, celebrities could come out and start educating their fans that are following them on social media. Because that's where the kids are today. Snapchat, Instagram, you know, TikTok. And that's where they're learning. They're not watching all this stuff, mainstream media, podcasts. They're actually focused on these, you know, videos out there. So if big celebrities started pushing the messaging, we'd save a lot of lives. But unfortunately, they don't understand the issue. So they don't want to taint their own brand by talking about drugs. But I got news for all of them. We're talking about poison. We're not talking about drugs at this point. Well, it would be nice if people like Travis Kelsey,

Starting point is 00:11:22 Taylor Swift, who's uber famous, Patrick Mahomes, would do something like that, a social media campaign, because people would pay attention to them and listen to them, in particular, Taylor Swift, who has the ear of young people. Derek, let's get back to the case at hand, what's going on in Kansas City, I reached out to the Kansas City police. They're saying nothing other than this is an ongoing death investigation, rather. They're not even talking about the toxicology results, the preliminary results, or the cause of death in this case. That leaked out because family members who were briefed on it told members of the media. So we don't really have the official word. We just have what came

Starting point is 00:12:05 from family members of the men who died through their loved ones. So they're saying this is an ongoing death investigation. We're working with the Platt County Prosecutor's Office. Once it's all wrapped up, we'll send it over to the prosecutor's office. They will determine whether or not charges are appropriate. I've done some digging and it looks like there have been people who've provided drugs in the past to people who've overdosed and died and they've been charged with second degree murder. I know the feds can also charge dealers. I don't know if they charge people who are friends

Starting point is 00:12:40 with people who provide the drugs with second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, what have you. But is this the type of case, it's gotten so much attention that you could see if it wasn't one of the men who died who provided the drugs, the person who did provide them being charged? Well, number one, there is a law on the federal Title 21 where it's called distribution of a controlled substance resulting in the death or serious bodily injury. And some of the elements are a little bit difficult to prove. But obviously, the defendant has to knowingly or intentionally deliver a substance that has fentanyl in it, let's say.

Starting point is 00:13:22 OK. And so that's always very difficult. But let's keep in mind what's really more important. DEA as an agency goes after the networks of cartel leadership that are pushing these poisonous substances all over the country. So it may not be the case where a friend accidentally provides cocaine that is laced with fentanyl that they don't get charged. But there is laws on the books. And I know the DEA in Missouri, for example, they have an awesome U.S. attorney's office that has aggressively prosecuted multiple cases, 10, 20, 30. I'm not sure exactly how many, using this statute. And they have had convictions and serious penalties to go along with this particular federal law. So it's case by case basis. It's

Starting point is 00:14:14 very difficult without having the facts to make a determination, but it's very, very difficult in many times. Plus, it is a very long process because the investigators have to try to get the data from the phones, from the computers. And, you know, it's very, very labor intensive. And I know the DEA in Missouri has a task force of groups that work on these overdose cases on a regular basis. They work very well with the state and locals. So I'm very confident, because I know the folks in St. Louis DEA, that if there is evidence that this particular guy that lived passed drugs to his friends that killed him, and the evidence shows that it was like intentional or he knowingly did

Starting point is 00:14:58 it, I can guarantee he's going to be charged with this federal crime. Because I don't believe in the state of Missouri, they have a law similar to like other states, like Indiana has dealing in controlled substances resulting in death. And they have charged people in Indiana, for an example, but I don't think they have that in Missouri, according to my sources. Yeah. And I looked into the Missouri laws a little bit and there was a bill in the legislature late last year that the governor vetoed that would have, you know, created some felony charges for people who deal or provide drugs that kill people. So it all depends on what the state statute says. Let's get back to Jordan Willis, the homeowner there, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:42 just a really weird thing. You know, he wakes up and says, you know, the cops are at the door and he's like, I've been asleep for two days. I thought they were gone or whatever. You know, there's been so much conflicting information out there about what he said or what he did. And we don't know if he took the same drugs that his friends did, but he obviously was in the house. His friends were outside the house. He's now entered rehab. When I hear that, I'm like, okay, did he have a drug problem? Is he entering rehab? Is this one of the things like celebrities, there's like a scandal, so they go into rehab? Is this a PR move? I've reached out to his lawyer. He hasn't gotten back to me. What are your thoughts on that? You've got this guy, he's an HIV scientist, a really accomplished guy, and his three friends die in his backyard of possibly

Starting point is 00:16:31 a fentanyl and cocaine overdose. So what is going on there? Well, it's a great question. Without having the facts, you know, it's hard for me to make that determination. I tell you what my instinct believes, and again, it's only my instinct, it's just an opinion, that they were partying in that house. They were using, you know, miscellaneous drugs, whether it's marijuana, cocaine. They were having a good time watching the chiefs dominate. And unfortunately, the three that went outside, maybe they took some more lines of cocaine that contained fentanyl. Maybe they went, you know, above and beyond what the other guy, Willis, was taking. I don't know. But I haven't heard, and maybe you know, what is his

Starting point is 00:17:12 blood test showing? Like, has he provided blood work to the, you know, to the police? I don't know. But it'd be interesting to see what was in his system. Did he have cocaine and fentanyl in the system? Because until we get those results, we're not going to be able to know, you know, what is really happening here. But I guess it makes sense. I'm not a doctor that if you were actually involved with using some type of synthetic opioid, it could put you to sleep for a long period of time. I don't know about two days. I've never heard that myself. But I think it's possible, depending on the dosage of synthetic opioid that was in your system. But again, it's hard to speculate without having the details. It really is. And we'll continue to follow the case. It'll be interesting to see if charges come of this. Obviously, the cops are being really tight lipped. This is what they do in these investigations. They keep it close to the

Starting point is 00:18:05 vest. There's also been a lot of talk of, oh my God, they didn't do a search warrant, but there may have been a consent search done on the house. We just don't know. Another question that's still kind of hanging out there. So Derek Maltz, thanks so much for coming on. We hope you come back sometime and talk about this and maybe some other stuff. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. One last thing I just want to put out to your viewers is that the dea in 2023 sees 78 million fake pills and 12 000 pounds of fentanyl powder and the dea administrator said that seven out of ten pills they've analyzed have a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl so these substances are everywhere so if you're taking drugs not a good idea because most likely it's tainted with fentanyl.

Starting point is 00:18:47 No doubt. It's not a good idea. Thanks again, Derek. And that's it for Crime Fix on this Wednesday, February 7th, 2024. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for joining us. We will see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a great night.

Starting point is 00:19:00 You can download Crime Fix on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your favorite podcasts and new episodes post each weeknight at 6 Eastern time on Law and Crime's YouTube channel. Daniel Camacho does our video editing. Our head of social media is Bobby Zoki. Our senior director of social media is Vanessa Bynes. Savannah Williamson is one of our producers. Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher book our guests, and Brad Mabey is our audio editor.

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