A convicted carfentanil dealer facing up to 45 years in prison, gets 90 days in jail and probation

Three counts of selling carfentanil — a synthetic form of fentanyl being cut into heroin and responsible for increased overdose deaths in Manatee County — got one dealer 90 days in jail.

Sherica Lavail Garvin, 27, could have been sentenced to up to 45 years in prison, according to court documents.

On July 17, as her scheduled trial was set to begin, Garvin pleaded no contest to three counts of selling carfentanil. The following day, Senior Circuit Judge Stephen Dakin sentenced Garvin to 90 days jail followed by three years of drug offender probation. Garvin will also have her driver’s license suspended for one year.

Garvin made an open plea, however, not a negotiated plea, so she could have faced up to the maximum penalty at the discretion of the judge.

Carfentanil — 10,000 times more powerful than morphine and often used as a tranquilizer to subdue large exotic animals such as rhinos, elephants and hippos — began to be found in heroin supplies and fatal overdose victims last year, further spiking an already out-of-control epidemic.

Garvin sold carfentanil to undercover operatives with the Bradenton Police Department on Oct. 11, Oct. 14 and Oct. 19.

During the first two buys, operatives purchased two bags of heroin for $40 each time from Garvin from the backyard of a duplex in the 2000 block 12th Street West as undercover detectives. The suspected heroin later tested positive for carfentanil.

During the third buy, Garvin took the operative inside the kitchen of one of the apartments in the duplex and grabbed a bag out of a kitchen cabinet. The operative had asked for two bags of heroin, but Garvin instead gave the operative five bags. The operative gave Garvin $40, and she told the operative just to give her $90 whenever the operative had it.

This story was originally published July 29, 2017 at 5:34 PM with the headline "A convicted carfentanil dealer facing up to 45 years in prison, gets 90 days in jail and probation."