U.S. Attorney Don Cochran announced Tuesday that six people have been sentenced for their roles in a Murfreesboro fentanyl distribution conspiracy that took place in July 2016.

The distribution conspiracy led to a massive outbreak of overdoses in Murfreesboro due to counterfeit prescription pills that contained fentanyl, a potent opioid that is sometimes utilized by cancer patients. The outbreak resulted in at least one death and more than 20 people hospitalized, according to a news release from Cochran’s office. 

On Monday, Joedon Bradley, 31, of Nashville was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the distribution, and Jonathan Barrett, 31, of Murfreesboro was sentenced to 23 years. Johnny Williams, 33, of Murfreesboro, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in December 2018. All three were convicted by a federal jury in March 2018.

Eric Falkowski, 37, of Kissimmee, Florida, was also sentenced Monday to 266 months in prison. Additionally, Davi Valles Jr., 26, of Nashville was sentenced to seven years Monday. Both pleaded guilty in 2017. 

On Tuesday, LaKrista Knowles, 27, of Nashville was sentenced to 100 months in prison. Knowles pleaded guilty in May 2017. 

The last two defendants in the case, Preston Davis, 25, of Madison and former Murfreesboro resident Jennifer Dogonski, 35, of Farmington, Michigan, previously pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in September. 

The multi-agency investigation into the overdoses began in early July 2016 after several overdoses occurred in a week. 

A 2016 indictment stated the overdoses occurred after Falkowski moved part of his illegal pill operation to Madison in May 2016. Before the move, law enforcement seized his pill presses during a search of his Florida home earlier that year.

According to a 2016 U.S. District Court criminal complaint, Falkowski was also arrested at this time after officers found a small bag of fentanyl in his pocket. They were originally dispatched to the home due to the death of Falkowski’s girlfriend, who had a fentanyl overdose in the bedroom of the house. 

Falkowski is a member of a drug trafficking organization that imports substances into the country, according to the complaint. The complaint stated that he then manufactures “counterfeit prescription tablets” and distributes the tablets throughout the Nashville area and other locations in the U.S. 

During the 2016 conspiracy, Davis, Bradley and Knowles acted as Falkowski’s midlevel distributors of fentanyl in Middle Tennessee, according to a 2017 indictment.

Davis allowed Falkowski to use his residence in Madison to store fentanyl and create pills, according to the indictment. 

Bradley and Falkowski began to create pills July 4, 2016, that were nearly identical to A333 prescription Percocet pills, according to the indictment. 

Bradley and Falkowski constructed the white oblong pills by mixing a combination of inert pill binder, Xanax, Tylenol and fentanyl, the release from Cochran’s office stated. Utilizing a mold that imprinted “A333” on the pills, Bradley helped to produce thousands of pills over the course of 24 hours, according to the release. 

About 400 pills were distributed around July 5 to Davis, who then distributed the pills to Valles, according to the 2017 indictment. Valles then sold some of the pills to Williams. Jason Moss drove Williams to the Nashville area to meet Valles and purchase the pills, the indictment stated. 

Moss was a defendant in the distribution case as well, but a Nashville federal jury found him not guilty on all counts in March 2018, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. 

Williams then arranged to sell 150 of the pills for $1,050 to Barrett through Dogonski, who acted as a broker, according to the indictment. 

Pills were then dealt out to various people by the distributors July 5-6, according to the indictment. 

The indictment stated that Barrett learned July 6 that multiple people had overdosed due to the distribution and one had possibly died, but he continued to distribute the pills.

During this time, Barrett texted Dogonski, “Girl. That was. At hospital. Just. Died. Off. Those,” and less than an hour later he texted a possible buyer, “got. 8. Left,” according to the indictment. 

The indictment confirmed that one of Barrett’s customers died as a result of his distribution of the pills. 

During the investigation, law enforcement searched Davis’ home in Madison after obtaining a federal search warrant and discovered the pill press; several molds, including an A333 mold; a pill grinder; the counterfeit pill ingredients; and other drug manufacturing equipment, according to a criminal complaint. 

The release from Cochran’s office stated that later testing showed the mold found in the house matched that of the mold used to create some of the pills taken from overdose victims in the case. 

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there were 1,269 deaths in 2017 in Tennessee involving opioids, which is a rate of 19.3 deaths per 100,000 persons. The NIDA also reported that the greatest increase in opioid-related deaths stemmed from synthetic opioids, “mainly fentanyl.”

Agencies involved in the 2016 investigation included the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Murfreesboro Police Department, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office and the Food and Drug Administration.

Reach Andrew Wigdor at awigdor@tennessean.com and on Twitter @andrew_wigdor

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