Bradenton man trafficked fentanyl — and he just got sentenced, state attorney says
.jpg "A 26-year-old Bradenton man pled guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl drugs into Manatee County, the State Attorney says.")
A 26-year-old Bradenton man was convicted of trafficking in fentanyl, the state attorney announced in a news release Wednesday afternoon.
Devontae Fields pleaded guilty on Oct. 13 to trafficking more than 14 grams but less than 28 grams of fentanyl, and was sentenced to 15 years in the Department of Corrections, according to the release.
The crime, which court records show happened on Oct. 22, 2020, carried a maximum possible sentence of 30 years.
As part of an ongoing investigation, law enforcement recovered 27 grams of fentanyl after Fields placed a call from the Manatee County Jail telling someone to break into his vehicle and move the drugs before they could be recovered, the state attorney said.
The investigation began when Fields was identified as a possible narcotics dealer by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office in 2019, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
Fields pleaded guilty to the charge after the court denied his motion to suppress, which is a written request asking a judge not to allow certain evidence to be introduced at trial because the evidence was obtained through police or government misconduct, according to the Department of Justice’s website.
In 2019, the Bradenton Herald reported that Fields crashed his silver sedan into the K&S convenience store in the 500 block of 30th Avenue East in Bradenton during a sting by detectives in the Special Investigations Division before he reversed and crashed into deputies behind him in an attempt to escape.
Fields has been arrested on various drug charges in the past and was previously found guilty of fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer, court records show.
Fields was sentenced earlier this year to five years on similar drug charges, the release said.
“We are happy to secure such a significant sentence in our ongoing efforts to combat the plague of drugs that has been afflicting our communities. We are especially thankful for the hard work of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office in making this case,” Lindsey Brigham, the lead prosecutor in the case, said in a statement.
