Oak Ridge Today

Man receives 2-year suspended sentence in drug overdose death

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Mike-Ritter-Troy-Venable-Aug-26-2019
Troy Andrew Venable, 30, right, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, after a drug and alcohol overdose killed Lauren Alexandra Fritts, 26, in Oak Ridge on October 8, 2016. At left is defense attorney Mike Ritter. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was last updated at 5:20 p.m. Aug. 27.

CLINTON—A 30-year-old man received a two-year suspended sentence Monday when he pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide after a drug and alcohol overdose in October 2016 killed a 26-year-old employee of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce and former goalkeeper for the Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats soccer team.

The two-year sentence for Troy Andrew Venable was suspended with credit for time served in jail (about four hours), and he was placed on supervised probation during a 15-minute plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday. Venable is to undergo a drug and alcohol assessment. He was also ordered to pay $1,850.50 in court costs.

Lauren Fritts

The overdose killed Lauren Alexandra Fritts, 26, on Saturday, October 8, 2016. She had consumed alcohol, crushed and inhaled 60 milligram roxycodone pills with her boyfriend, Paul Mize, and drank at a bar before using heroin supplied by Venable sometime after midnight—after Fritts and Mize got into an argument, according to alleged facts read in court on Monday.

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Woman receives three-year sentence in drug overdose

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Heather Marie Rau

Heather Marie Rau

 

An Oak Ridge woman received a three-year prison sentence in a plea agreement on Monday after a drug overdose that reportedly involved a fentanyl analogue last year left a man unconscious on a hallway floor with a very weak pulse and unable to breathe on his own.

Heather Mariue Rau, 30, pleaded guilty in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Monday to charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment with illegal narcotics (acrylfentanyl), promotion of methamphetamine manufacture, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drugs for sale, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Those charges were from two separate indictments against Rau last year.

A second, duplicate charge of possession of drug paraphernalia was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Rau must pay court costs and fines that appear to total close to $9,000, according to criminal judgements filed by the Anderson County Circuit Court Clerk. She will receive credit for time served after being jailed at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton since February 16, 2017. As a standard offender, her release eligibility has been set at 30 percent. [Read more…]

Updated: Homicide charge in drug-related fatality could be a first in Anderson County

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Troy Andrew Venable

Troy Andrew Venable

 

This story was last updated at 5:30 p.m.

The reckless homicide charge filed against an Oak Ridge man in a grand jury indictment after a drug-related fatality could be a first in Anderson County, a law enforcement official said.

Troy Andrew Venable, 29, was indicted in April on a reckless homicide charge in the death of Lauren Alexandra Fritts, 26.

Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said it is, as far as he knows, the first time in Anderson County that someone has been indicted on a homicide charge in a drug-related fatality. [Read more…]

Woman indicted on assault, endangerment charges in drug overdose

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Heather Marie Rau

Heather Marie Rau

An Oak Ridge woman has been indicted on charges of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in a drug overdose reported in February.

The drug that allegedly caused the overdose of Wesley “Bud” Arnold on West Outer Drive on February 16 had been said to be heroin, according to affidavits filed earlier this year in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge.

Arnold was unconscious on a hallway floor, had a very weak pulse, and could not breathe on his own when an emergency medical crew responded to the overdose at about 3 p.m. February 16. Emergency personnel were able to revive Arnold by giving him a dose of Narcan, which is used to help people who overdose on opioid-based narcotics.

But indictments filed against Heather Marie Rau, 29, on August 1, said the illegal narcotic was not heroin but actually acrylfentanyl, a fentanyl analogue that is more powerful and dangerous than heroin.

Rau had advised Arnold not to “shoot it,” or inject it, because she knew that what she had given him could possibly kill him, according to the affidavits filed in February. Rau and another man, Willie Williams, had ingested the same drug on February 12, and Rau overdosed while Williams died, said the affidavits, filed by Oak Ridge Police Department Detective John Criswell. [Read more…]