Skagit man arrested for alleged controlled-substance homicide in Bellingham
A Skagit County man was arrested for homicide Thursday evening for allegedly giving another man a fentanyl-laced pill, killing him, while they were working together in Whatcom County.
Derik Anthony Shooster, 32, of Marblemount was arrested April 8 on suspicion of controlled-substance homicide, according to Whatcom County Superior Court records.
Shooster’s first court appearance was scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.
This makes the second alleged homicide in Whatcom County in two days. Law enforcement are seeking information from the public about a body found on the Semiahmoo Spit on Wednesday. The cases are unrelated, according to law enforcement officials.
An overdose
On Tuesday, April 6, medical personnel were called to the 100 block of Kelly Road for a 28-year-old suspected overdose victim. The male victim was found unresponsive in a moving truck and was unable to be revived, according to court records. He was declared dead at the scene.
A witness on scene told Whatcom County Sheriff’s deputies he was working a job at a Bellingham moving company with the man and they were both being trained by Shooster, according to court records. The witness saw Shooster smoking marijuana and “snorting” pills on both Monday, April 5, and Tuesday, the records state.
On Tuesday, the witness said he saw the victim hand Shooster money and say it was gas money he owed to Shooster. The witness told deputies this was odd, because this was the first day the victim and Shooster met, court records show. The witness told deputies he believed the money was for pills, according to court records.
The victim became lethargic shortly afterward and Shooster and the witness put him in the truck while they finished the moving job in Bellingham, the court records state. They checked on the victim periodically, but he would only wake briefly, “mumble and pass out again,” court records show.
The group returned to the moving truck depot on Kelly Road around 4 p.m. and left the victim in the truck, the records state. The witness told deputies he became concerned several hours later when he couldn’t get in touch with the victim. The witness sent a friend to check on the victim, who found him dead in the truck, according to court records.
Deputies allegedly called Shooster Tuesday night and he claimed to not know what happened to the victim, the court records state. Shooster told deputies he didn’t see the victim with drugs, didn’t know how he would have died and that he was tired and would provide a statement at a later date, the records show.
Fentanyl pills
On Wednesday, Shooster provided a written statement to deputies and again said he didn’t see the victim with drugs and didn’t know how the man could have died, according to court records.
Later during an interview with deputies, Shooster admitted to using marijuana in the truck with the witness present while they were working Monday, the records state. Shooster then admitted to “snorting a ‘Perc 30’” in front of the witness, records show.
Shooster told deputies the pills were light blue with an “M” on one side and “30” on the other, court records state. The pills have been identified as counterfeit Oxycodone or Percocet made with fentanyl, according to the records. Shooster told deputies they were known as “Perc 30s,” records state.
In the interview, Shooster told deputies he spoke with the victim about whether it was acceptable for him to be using (drugs) at work, and the victim said he didn’t mind and later asked Shooster to share or sell him a pill, the records show.
Shooster said he refused at first, but finally sold the victim a pill for $12 after the victim kept asking, the court records state. Shooster put one of the pills in the glove box of the truck and told the victim where it was, records show.
The victim became lethargic shortly afterward and Shooster told deputies they put him in the truck for about an hour and a half while he and the witness finished the job they were doing, according to court records. Shooster said the pair checked on the victim multiple times, could wake him and then he would return to sleep.
After finishing the job and returning to the truck depot, Shooster said he left the victim in the back of the truck because he believed the witness was returning for him, court records state.
Shooster told deputies he buys around eight pills at a time to help with pain, but occasionally sells them to other people, records show. Shooster said after he heard about the victim’s death, he flushed his remaining five pills down the toilet “because he was ‘freaked out’,” the records state.
During the interview with deputies, Shooster seemed upset by the victim’s death, according to court records.
When deputies searched Shooster’s trailer, they allegedly found a blue powder that was chopped up, as well as in two pill crushers, records state. Deputies also allegedly found almost 3 grams of methamphetamine, according to court records.
An autopsy of the victim revealed there was alcohol and fentanyl within the man’s body. The medical examiner found no other medical conditions that would have contributed to the man’s death, the records state. The man’s death was determined to be from an overdose, court records state.
Deaths increasing
Fentanyl is 80-100 times more potent than morphine, and carfentanyl is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, according to a previous story in The Bellingham Herald. A single dose the size of a pinhead can be lethal.
The first recognized cases of fentanyl pills, known as “M30s,” were found on a suspect during an arrest in Whatcom County in 2018, according to a previous news release from the sheriff’s office.
Since then, there were four fentanyl-related overdose deaths in 2019, and 23 fentanyl-related deaths in 2020 — a 475% increase.
There have been 11 fentanyl-related deaths in the first three months of 2021 and carfentanyl has been detected in some of the victims.
The victim’s death has been linked to the spike in recent overdose deaths, according to a Friday news release from the sheriff’s office.
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 3:26 PM.
