A Dallas woman has been handed nearly 19 years in prison after admitting her role in a July 2025 overdose inside the Lew Sterrett Justice Center that left another inmate dead. Prosecutors say 27-year-old Daisy Zuniga smuggled pills laced with fentanyl and methamphetamine into the jail in a body cavity and then shared them with women in her cell. One of those inmates, 21-year-old Quinnetta Ariana Brinkley, later died at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The sentence combines punishment for delivery causing death, delivery causing serious bodily injury and a probation violation.
Sentence and charges
Zuniga accepted a guilty plea and received what authorities described as a nearly 19-year package: 10 years tied to Brinkley’s death, 5 years for causing serious harm by supplying drugs inside the lockup and 3 years, 9 months on a revoked probation term. She had been indicted on counts of delivery of a controlled substance causing death and delivery causing serious bodily injury following her July 11, 2025 arrest, according to CBS News Texas.
How investigators say she smuggled the drugs
According to arrest affidavits and local reporting, Zuniga concealed a small bag of narcotics in a body cavity before she was booked into the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, slipping past both an X-ray scanner and a strip search. Witnesses told investigators the pills looked like Xanax bars but were actually laced with fentanyl and methamphetamine and were shared among at least four women in the cell, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Inside the tank
Detention officers discovered the women during a face-to-face security check on July 13 and sent all four inmates to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Brinkley was pronounced dead later that night. Investigators reported finding a blue baggy in the cell that field-tested positive for fentanyl, and one witness told detectives Zuniga admitted she had placed the drugs on her body to get them past intake screening, according to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort-Worth.
Legal implications
The charges in the case, delivery causing death and delivery causing serious bodily injury, are among the legal tools prosecutors use when a drug sale or handoff is linked to an overdose fatality. Before the plea agreement, the judge had a sentencing range of 5 to 99 years on the most serious count, according to CBS News Texas.
Accountability and reaction
The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office opened an internal investigation into how the drugs made it past security, but officials have not publicly released their findings. County leaders told reporters the case drives home difficult questions about screening, staffing and how contraband moves inside a jail that houses thousands of people. Family members and local advocates say Brinkley’s death highlights both the lethal potency of fentanyl and the ongoing struggle jails face in keeping it out of custody, according to The Dallas Morning News.
