Pinellas man gets life in prison for selling fentanyl after 2 fatally OD on same day

A St. Petersburg man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for selling the fentanyl that prosecutors said caused two overdose deaths in Pinellas Park on the same day in May 2020.

The deaths occurred within a mile of one another. One was a 34-year-old single father, the other a 32-year-old single mother, though police found no direct relationship between the victims. Prosecutors did not release their names.

Pinellas Park police detectives noticed similarities in the cases and soon traced both fatal doses to Bobby Peterson, a fentanyl supplier, Pinellas Park police Chief Adam Geissenberger told reporters Tuesday.

Jacqueline Schneider bought one of those doses and gave it to a friend, the man who fatally overdosed. According to U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg, when she told Peterson of her friend’s death, he showed no remorse, instead telling her, “They know what they’re doing.”

The dead man and woman obtained the fentanyl under the belief that it was heroin. According to Handberg, fentanyl is often disguised and sold as other drugs — which can lead to fatal overdoses.

Peterson continued to sell fentanyl after the deaths, Handberg said. Schneider at first tried to evade law enforcement, he said, moving multiple times between Pasco and Pinellas counties.

When police located her in January 2021, she reported Peterson and arranged a sale between him and an undercover detective that February — leading to his arrest in 2022. She later testified against him.

Peterson was charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl leading to death, distribution of fentanyl leading to death and distribution of fentanyl.

In April, Peterson was convicted on all counts after a jury trial. Jurors did not find Peterson guilty of the woman’s death, according to the verdict form — but the first charge only required he be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in one of the two deaths.

On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced him to two life terms for the first two charges and 30 years in prison for the third charge. The sentences will be served concurrently.

He previously pleaded guilty in 2015 in a Pinellas court to trafficking the opioid hydromorphone and selling cocaine, for which he served four years in state prison. His prior criminal history placed him in the highest category for federal sentencing guidelines, according to Handberg.

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Michael Maddux, an attorney for Peterson, said he disputes the outcome in his client’s case and that Peterson will appeal.

Maddux criticized prosecutors’ introduction of the prior felony drug convictions into sentencing, which left the judge no choice but to sentence Peterson to a life term.

“They took away the judicial discretion,” he said.

Maddux said his client had been making efforts to build a life — working two jobs and attending classes at barber school.

“The life sentence ignores the fact that everyone has redeemable qualities,” Maddux said.

Schneider was also charged with fentanyl distribution. She pleaded guilty in September 2022 and was sentenced to 5 years of probation earlier this year.

The case was a joint effort between the Pinellas Park Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

Announcing the sentencing at a Pinellas Park news conference Tuesday afternoon, Handberg called fentanyl the “deadliest drug threat that our country has ever faced.”

“A potentially lethal dose can fit on the tip of a pen,” he said.

Handberg’s office has made fentanyl prosecutions a priority since his appointment in 2022 — doubling the number of cases brought in the last two years. In June, he brought charges against four Tampa men accused of fentanyl distribution leading to the death of a University of South Florida student earlier this year.

Fentanyl caused 5,622 deaths in Florida in 2022, according to a Florida medical examiners’ report.

The drug has been a key driver of the opioid epidemic, with the Centers for Disease Control estimating that the majority of U.S. overdose deaths were caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl in 2022.

Geissenberger, the police chief, said Pinellas Park — a city of just over 50,000 residents — saw 96 overdose deaths from February 2018 to June 2023.

“The problem is obviously pervasive,” Geissenberger said. “We are here to combat it one person, one case, one unfortunate incident at a time.”