A Denison man who supplied fentanyl to a 20-year-old woman, then filmed her as she slipped into a fatal overdose without calling for help, has been sentenced to life in federal prison. Authorities said the victim, identified as Macie Joe Chastain, died after an overdose on Sept. 5, 2024.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas, 36-year-old Andrew Michael Smith was convicted at trial of possession with intent to distribute and dispense fentanyl resulting in death. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant sentenced him to life in prison. The release notes that Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Erlandson and Abe McGlothin Jr. prosecuted the case, and that the FBI and the Denison Police Department handled the investigation.
The Denison Police Department said Chastain, 20, died from multidrug toxicity that included fentanyl and methamphetamine, based on findings from the Dallas County Medical Examiner, according to a November 2024 news release from the Denison Police Department. That release said Smith and another man were arrested in connection with Chastain's death and described the arrests as the county's first fentanyl-murder charges since a recent change in state law.
Prosecutors' account of the overdose
In court, prosecutors laid out a grim timeline. On Sept. 5, 2024, Smith provided Chastain with fentanyl-laced pills and methamphetamine, then watched and recorded her for several hours as she showed severe overdose symptoms, including difficulty breathing, extreme confusion, vomiting and tremors.
Evidence introduced at trial showed that while Chastain was deteriorating, Smith continued communicating with others and arranging additional drug transactions. Prosecutors said he did not call emergency responders until after she had taken her last breath, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas.
Smith targeted this victim because he knew her addiction made her vulnerable, U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs said in the release.
Law and local context
Local officials said the case began as a Denison police investigation, then expanded to include federal partners. The department highlighted that the initial arrests were the county's first under a 2023 Texas law that broadened murder statutes to include certain fentanyl deaths.
House Bill 6, which took effect on Sept. 1, 2023, created a state offense for supplying fentanyl that results in death and requires fentanyl-related deaths to be listed as fentanyl poisoning on death certificates, according to the Office of the Governor.
Federal officials said Smith's prosecution is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals federal resources against cartels and violent crime, and similar language has appeared in federal agency press releases such as those from the DEA.
