Suspected drug dealer faces murder charges – News – Daily Comet

A suspected drug dealer has been indicted in connection to two fatal overdoses last year.

A Terrebonne Parish grand jury found enough evidence Wednesday to charge Jardon Lee Smith, 31, with two counts of second-degree murder in the 2018 overdose deaths of Robert McCord and Sarah Pellegrin, authorities said.

According to the indictment, Smith sold heroin and fentanyl to the two victims, who overdosed on the narcotics in March 2018.

Smith is facing multiple pending drug charges including possession with intent to distribute Suboxone, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute heroin or fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and transactions involving drug proceeds.

Prosecutors said Smith is also charged with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and possessing a weapon in the presence of drugs.

“The investigation regarding his previous charges led us and law enforcement to look deeper in the situation,” said First Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate. “That’s where the indictment came from. He was a drug dealer who was selling heroin and fentanyl and causing a lot of damage.”

Smith, who’s currently incarcerated in the Terrebonne Parish jail, is scheduled to stand trial on the drugs and weapons charges on July 8, Dagate said.

Houma Police linked the overdoses to Smith when they discovered both deaths had similar elements, narcotics commander Lt. Jeffery Lirette said.

“We investigated two similar overdoses around the same time in March 2018,” Lirette said. “We determined the narcotics sold to the two people who overdosed ultimately came from Jardon Smith. In one of the cases he sold the drugs to the victim through a third party.”

Pellegrin’s mother, Renee Dryden Bertinot, said she hopes Smith’s indictment will send a message to other would-be drug dealers.

“Nothing will bring my daughter back,” Bertinot said today. “She is gone forever, and our lives are changed and our hearts are broken, but maybe this indictment will make someone think twice about dealing drugs. Maybe it will stop somebody because the next time they deal could cause a death. Is that really worth the risk to them? I don’t know. It’s all so heartbreaking.”

About 95 percent of Terrebonne’s fatal overdoses are caused by fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid, Lirette said.

“It’s not good,” he said. “As low as .25 milligrams can be deadly. That’s not much at all.”

Smith is being held on a $1 million bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the murder charges on May 13 in Judge George Larke Jr.’s courtroom. 

–Staff Writer Dan Copp can be reached at 448-7639 or at dan.copp@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanVCopp.