A Boynton Beach man accused of selling the drugs that killed a longtime customer has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Isaiah Delgado pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the February 2024 overdose death of 31-year-old Kalev Kangro, along with multiple drug trafficking and sale charges.
Delgado pleaded guilty to manslaughter connected to Kangro's drug overdose death, as well as three counts of trafficking in cocaine, five counts of selling cocaine, and two counts of selling oxycodone, according to WPEC/CBS12. He received credit for 814 days already served in jail. Kangro was found dead in his Boynton Beach apartment in February 2024, with police saying an autopsy determined he died from fentanyl and cocaine intoxication.
How the Investigation Unfolded
According to the reported timeline, Delgado allegedly offered Kangro “percs” and cocaine on Feb. 6, 2024, and police said Kangro agreed to buy six pills and seven grams of cocaine. Delgado then delivered drugs to Kangro on Feb. 7, the same day Kangro was found dead. Kangro's wife told police her husband had recently used cocaine and pills obtained from a man she knew as Pedro.
The case took a more serious turn the following summer. Delgado was arrested in July 2024, and prosecutors initially charged him on July 9 with first-degree murder and 11 counts related to drug trafficking, the station's report notes, drawing on reporting from Yahoo News. That outlet reported that Kangro's wife, Laura Jimenez, said she watched Delgado sell her husband cocaine in the kitchen of their apartment on Feb. 7, the day he was found dead, and that she later identified Delgado in a police lineup.
Undercover Buys and a Murder Charge That Didn't Stick
Investigators didn't stop at the initial allegations. CBS12 reported that undercover detectives staged a series of drug buys targeting Delgado over the five months following Kangro's death, part of the broader effort described in the outlet's coverage of why charging drug dealers with murder is difficult in Palm Beach County. Yahoo News, however, described the undercover operation differently, reporting that an officer bought $7,000 worth of cocaine from Delgado over six months — the two accounts differ on the exact duration of the undercover buys.
The first-degree murder charge against Delgado ultimately did not result in a murder conviction; he instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter. That outcome tracks with a pattern CBS12 identified through Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg's office: of all dealers charged with first-degree murder in the county, none had been convicted of that charge at the time of the outlet's reporting, per Yahoo News.
Fentanyl's Grip on Palm Beach County
Fentanyl has become the dominant factor in local opioid deaths. Aronberg told CBS12 that 95% of opioid overdose deaths in Palm Beach County involve fentanyl. The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office reported that opioid-caused deaths in the county fell 14% in 2021, dropping from 604 to 519 compared with the prior year, with most of those deaths attributed to fentanyl or a fentanyl analog. Statewide, Florida recorded 6,366 opioid-related deaths in 2021, up nearly 5% from 6,089 the year before, according to the same office.
Delgado's manslaughter plea and sentence echo earlier Palm Beach County cases where murder charges in overdose deaths were resolved through lesser pleas. Calvin Warren Jr. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 22-year sentence for a 2017 overdose death, Yahoo News reported, while Joreel Sine was sentenced to 12 years for manslaughter in 2022 after selling the drug to Vicki Sakers; Candace Moreland, not Sakers, died in the 2017 overdose.
What the Trafficking Charges Carry Under Florida Law
The trafficking counts Delgado pleaded guilty to fall under Florida Statute 893.135, which the Florida Legislature classifies as first-degree felony trafficking in cocaine for knowingly selling, delivering, or possessing 28 grams or more of cocaine but less than 150 kilograms. The statute sets a mandatory minimum of three years in prison and a $50,000 fine for trafficking between 28 and less than 200 grams of cocaine. Separately, the law identifies 4 grams or more of oxycodone or related substances as the threshold for first-degree felony trafficking in illegal drugs.
