Bradenton heroin, fentanyl dealer gets 35-year prison term

A Bradenton heroin and fentanyl dealer was sentenced to 35 years in prison for convictions including trafficking in heroin.

A home occupied by Deandrick Bacon, 39, and his girlfriend, Rashanda Spates, was identified as one of the distribution sources of heroin and fentanyl being trafficked in Manatee County — the epicenter of Florida’s drug overdose epidemic — during a joint investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in June.

A jury found Bacon guilty on Dec. 12 following a two-day jury trial on charges of trafficking in heroin, possession of fentanyl, possession of heroin, sale of heroin within 1,000 feet of a church and sale of fentanyl within 1,000 feet of a church.

On Thursday afternoon, Bacon was sentenced to a total of 35 years prison when he appeared before Circuit Judge Hunter Carroll. The sentences included a mandatory minimum of 25 years for the trafficking in heroin conviction.

Assistant State Attorney Candice Bartholomew argued that Bacon had been a big player in the local drug trade, not a dealer at the bottom.

“I think 30 years is appropriate because the facts of this client demands it, the public deserves it, and I think justice requires it,” Bartholomew said.

Defense attorney Charles Britt argued that even the mandatory 25-year sentence would translate to a life sentence for him because of his age and the average life expectancy for a black man in Florida, especially one who is incarcerated.

“This defendant had graduated to what I consider in narcotics the top, the new drug of choice,” said Manatee County Sheriff’s Office narcotics detective Derrick Polluck. “Back in the ’80s and ’90s when I first began my career, it was crack cocaine, and now it’s heroin. So now heroin is being sold in the street like candy.”

Spates pleaded no contest Dec. 5 to the charges of sale of heroin and fentanyl within 1,000 feet of a place of worship. She was sentenced to three and half years in prison on Dec. 20 by Circuit Judge Diana Moreland, despite her defense that she had only played a minor role in the drug sales because she was blinded by her love for Bacon.

Bacon is also facing a violation of federal probation for a conviction involving cocaine for which he served 10 years in prison.

This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 11:04 PM with the headline "Bradenton heroin, fentanyl dealer gets 35-year prison term."