Woman sentenced in fatal jailhouse overdose – News – fosters.com

Kyle Stucker @KyleStucker

DOVER — A Rochester woman was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison Thursday after pleading guilty to sneaking fentanyl into the county jail and providing it to a woman who died after using the drug.

Kerry Guay, 32, pleaded guilty to smuggling fentanyl into the Strafford County House of Corrections on two occasions in 2018 — once in January and once in April. The latter is the one linked to the April 3 jailhouse death of Nikole Coe, 24, of Rochester.

Guay has the ability to reduce her minimum sentence by three years if she completes substance use disorder treatment recommended by the state prison, according to Deputy County Attorney Tim Sullivan.

The charges Guay pleaded guilty to Thursday were dispensing a controlled drug with death resulting in connection with Coe’s death, and two delivery-of-articles prohibited charges for bringing drugs into the jail on those two occasions.

At the time of Coe’s death, Coe was also facing a death resulting charge of her own for allegedly providing the fentanyl that caused the death of Rochester resident Sarah Brooks in February 2017. That case was ultimately dropped due to Coe’s death.

Guay also pleaded guilty Thursday to various charges in other active cases, including a December 2016 fentanyl possession with intent to distribute case out of Wakefield and a January 2017 robbery case out of Somersworth.

In exchange for Guay’s various pleas, some of Guay’s charges were rolled in as concurrent sentences with the 10- to- 20-year sentence handed down specifically for the death resulting charge, according to Sullivan. For other charges, Guay was given consecutive sentences that will be fully suspended after her release on the death resulting charge if she remains on good behavior for 10 years.

Should she violate the terms of her probation upon her release, Sullivan said the state could impose between 7 and 15 years of additional jail time due to the sentences that were suspended Thursday in Strafford County Superior Court.

According to Guay’s plea deal, Guay smuggled fentanyl into the county jail on Jan. 18, 2018, and April 2, 2018, by hiding it inside her body. She was found in possession of approximately 5 grams of fentanyl on Jan. 18, and 5.78 grams on April 2, according to Sullivan.

Guay and Coe were temporarily held together in a booking cell on April 2, during which Guay gave Coe fentanyl. A short time later, corrections officers allegedly noticed some of the women began exhibiting signs of impairment. During a subsequent strip search, corrections officers located fentanyl within a plastic bag protruding from the inside of Guay’s body.

According to Sullivan, Coe didn’t actually use the fentanyl Guay gave her until the next day, April 3, after she was transported back to the Carroll County House of Corrections. Coe was being held there prior to the court appearance that brought her to Strafford County.

“The actual crime was in Strafford, but the death occurred in Carroll County,” said Sullivan.

Sullian said an investigation revealed Guay was able to smuggle fentanyl into the Strafford County House of Corrections because she was pregnant at the time. The facility’s scanners give off radiation, which make them unsafe for pregnant women to pass through them.

Sullivan said the case has led to procedural changes within the facility. He commended all parties involved for putting “a lot of time” into the investigation and case because “it’s something we take very seriously.”

“We’ve implemented a number of tools to stop the influx of drugs into the jail, but there’s only so much we could do” at the time last year, said Sullivan.

WMUR has reported Coe’s family requested leniency for Guay at Guay’s sentencing, calling for the court to put more emphasis on treatment than lengthy incarceration. Coe’s sister also reportedly expressed anger and frustration about Coe’s death during Guay’s sentencing, WMUR has reported.