A Cincinnati man is facing serious charges after the tragic overdose death of his sister-in-law in Fairfield Township earlier this year. As reported by Cincinnati.com, Auqeith Byner, 41, has been indicted on counts of involuntary manslaughter and corrupting another with drugs. The charges stem from the March 27 incident where 36-year-old Sherry Geis died after consuming a lethal dose of fentanyl and cocaine.
Geis was found unresponsive by family members in her bed at her Seward Road home. Following her death, the Butler County Coroner's Office concluded the cause as an accidental overdose of the substances. FOX19 added that Fairfield Township Police had to piece together the events that led to the fatality, eventually identifying Byner, the victim's brother-in-law, as the one who provided the drugs. A Butler County grand jury handed down the indictment on December 10.
According to the Fairfield Township Police, their investigation pointed to a drug deal near Geis' home at a United Dairy Farmers on Tylersville Road. In a statement obtained by WCPO, police said that Byner was the figure who sold Geis the drugs that led to her overdose. Currently, Byner is being held in the Kenton County Jail on unrelated drug charges, but he will be extradited to Ohio to face the new charges about Geis's death.
Sgt. Brandon McCroskey of Fairfield Township Police expressed the difficulty in prosecuting such cases, stating, "They’re very difficult to prove, who sold the drugs to these individuals. So, that’s why they’re so rare. It’s not that we don’t want to prosecute them, it’s they are uniquely very difficult to prove where these individuals got their drugs from," as reported by FOX19. Byner's past criminal record in Tennessee, dating back to 2000, includes convictions for assault, aggravated assault, and other charges.
