'Callous disregard' gets Winnipeg dealer 15-year sentence in fatal carfentanil overdose

It wasn't long after an ominous text message sent to a client from Winnipeg fentanyl dealer Charles McKay — who was sentenced to another 13 years in prison Friday — that someone turned up dead.

"I have killer that won't kill you," McKay texted a client looking to buy fentanyl, court heard.

Three people were hospitalized in early 2017 but survived after overdosing on what McKay says he thought was fentanyl, court heard. A fourth client fatally overdosed days later on what police believe was carfentanil.

"We have the evidence of what the contents of his phone are and we've [seen] unprecedented insight into the mind and works of a fentanyl trafficker," Crown prosecutor Judy Kliewer said.

"It's disturbing and this kind of case has not come before the courts before."

Provincial court Judge Tracey Lord agreed to a 15-year prison sentence jointly requested by the Crown and Amado Claros, the defence lawyer for McKay, less two years for time served.

He pleaded guilty to charges of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking stemming from a police search of his residence on May 4, 2016.

He also pleaded guilty to a Jan. 19, 2017, charge of selling the carfentanil that resulted in the death.

Carfentanil looks like table salt and was designed as a non-fatal way to immobilize moose, elephants and other large animals. A 20-microgram dose is enough to kill humans — one microgram is smaller than a grain of salt.

The girlfriend of the man who died told police the pair went to McKay's on Jan. 18, 2017 — the night before the man's death — to get fentanyl.

Court heard the man went to McKay as he was experiencing withdrawal due to missing a dose of methadone, which is sometimes prescribed to help people addicted to heroin and opioids get clean.

The man used the white powder he got from McKay, thinking it was fentanyl. He never woke up, his girlfriend told police, and lab tests of residue on a plate next to the bed indicated it was carfentanil.

'Never forced anybody to take anything'

Though McKay apologized to members of the dead man's family in court, in one moment Judge Lord said he displayed the same "cavalier" attitude described in the presentence report.

"I've never forced anybody to take anything that they didn't ask for," McKay told court after his apology, saying he too was in the grips of an addiction. 

"I know it's not something I should be doing in the first place, but when you're wrapped up in an addiction that's got ahold of your life, there's really nothing you can do."

His need to sell was more important than the well-being of his customers.- Judge Tracey Lord

Lord said text messages from McKay suggested he knew the batch of product he was selling "was a dangerous one, different in some way," and he knew at least three people had overdosed recently — yet that that didn't stop him.

"Notwithstanding this knowledge, his need to sell was more important than the well-being of his customers," Lord said.

"Trafficking in these kinds of substances with such full knowledge and such a callous and cold disregard for the obvious risks involved, in favour of his own self-interest, results in a very high degree of moral culpability here."

That McKay has since sought treatment for his own addiction, and the fact that he pleaded guilty, were considered mitigating factors at his sentencing.

But Lord also chastised McKay for showing signs that he hasn't fully absorbed his role in the death.

"There is nothing hypothetical about these circumstances. This is a clear and very real and tragic example of the horrific crisis that the community is facing with respect to this type of drug," Lord said.

"I can only hope that when you're released you will be someone with a better plan and a better insight into how he can contribute in a positive way to society and community."