A Kentucky man who sold counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and caused the death of a teenager has been sentenced to 26 years and eight months in federal prison

A police officer had asked Akili O. Simpson to stop dealing pills just two days before he sold the deadly dose to a 17-year-old girl, according to the court record.

Simpson, 23, of Danville pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and one charge of distribution of fentanyl that resulted in a death.

Simpson grew up in difficult circumstances, with little money and a father who was largely absent until he was 16 and then died soon after they reconnected, his attorney, Patrick F. Nash of Lexington, said in a sentencing memorandum.

He ultimately began selling drugs and also began using drugs and became addicted, Nash said.

Simpson sold a pill to a girl on Nov. 3, 2022 outside a store in Danville. She died of an overdose the same day in the basement of her parents’ home, two months after turning 17, according to the court record.

Federal authorities said the pill Simpson sold the victim was marked to look like a pill containing oxycodone.

The dangers of fentanyl

Police and public-health agencies have warned of the danger of fatal overdoses from pills that look like one type of painkiller or anti-depressant but actually contain fentanyl, which is far more powerful than other opioid drugs.

Fentanyl is cheap so drug rings mix it with other drugs or make pills from it to boost profits.

Fentanyl has been involved in most overdose deaths in Kentucky for several years.

“This case is a stark reminder of the dangers of illicit fentanyl, its prevalence in our communities, and the devious methods of those selling it,” U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier IV said in a news release. “These drugs are extremely dangerous and there is little way to know for certain what a drug dealer may be selling.”

Detective asks dealer to stop selling drugs

Nash said in his sentencing memo that Simpson was “consumed with remorse” over the death. Nash sought a sentence of 20 years for Simpson.

However, the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Bradbury, said in a sentencing memo that Simpson was a large-scale drug dealer who admitted buying 300 to 500 pills at a time to resell, and knew they contained fentanyl.

Simpson sold the 17-year-old girl the pill that killed her just weeks after getting off probation when he was charged in state court with selling marijuana and having a gun, Bradbury said.

And just two days before the sale, Keith Addison, a detective with the Danville Police Department, told Simpson he’d heard Simpson was selling drugs and asked him to stop before he got killed or killed someone.

“And I said I’m not gonna lie, I have sold the fake pills before,” Simpson told Addison, recounting what he allegedly told others earlier. “I said listen, I don’t do that s–t no more, for the simple fact that 80% is what you get, and if a (expletive) ODs, you’re done. And I left it alone. I’m not gonna lie.”

Addison recorded the exchange on his body camera and Bradbury included it in the court record.

Six months later, police arrested Simpson after he sold 57 pills for $400 to a woman outside a Danville store.

Bradbury sought a sentence of between 272 months and 293 months for Simpson, but Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced him to 320 months in prison.

Reeves sentenced Simpson May 31 in federal court in Lexington.