A Brunswick County man will spend years in prison after admitting he sold the cocaine and fentanyl that killed a local man in 2024, with evidence showing the fatal deal happened while he was on the clock at a Whiteville Walmart. Dylan Fowler pleaded guilty to death by distribution of a controlled substance and was sentenced to 64 to 89 months behind bars.
Fowler entered his plea in Brunswick County Superior Court on October 7, according to Columbus County News. He will receive 686 days of credit for time already served. The case centers on a March 2024 transaction in which Fowler sold cocaine and fentanyl to Austin McLean of Brunswick County, the outlet reports.
McLean's family later found him dead in his home, and the State Medical Examiner determined that he died of acute intoxication from the combination of cocaine and fentanyl, per the same report. Investigators pieced together the deal through video and cell phone records, which showed McLean bought the drugs from Fowler while Fowler was working at the Walmart in Whiteville, according to the outlet's account. Separate coverage from WECT also identified Fowler as a Walmart employee at the time of the sale.
Charges Dropped for a Single Guilty Plea
Fowler was originally charged with a far more serious slate of offenses, including second-degree murder, sale and delivery of fentanyl and cocaine, possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver fentanyl and cocaine, and sale and delivery of Schedule II controlled substances, Columbus County News reports. Prosecutors ultimately dropped those original charges in exchange for Fowler's plea to the single charge of death by distribution, the report notes.
Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jason Disbrow of Brunswick County presided over the hearing. Assistant District Attorneys Chris Thomas and Madison Parker represented the state, according to the same account.
A Law Built for Cases Like This
North Carolina's death-by-distribution statute, formally titled under the state's criminal code as covering death by distribution of certain controlled substances and aggravated death by distribution, per North Carolina General Statutes, Chapter 14, was designed to give prosecutors a tool to hold dealers accountable when their product kills someone. But the charge doesn't always stick through trial. In Mecklenburg County, local law enforcement has opened six death-by-distribution cases in district and superior courts since 2021, and none resulted in a conviction, according to the Charlotte Observer. Neighboring Union County, with roughly a quarter of Mecklenburg's population, has filed seven cases carrying the same charge, the paper reports.
Statewide, police and prosecutors have filed the death-by-distribution charge 187 times in superior courts, with 54 of those filings coming in a single recent year, per the Observer's reporting. Of those 187 cases, only 25 ended in a guilty plea, the paper notes — making Fowler's conviction part of a relatively small slice of cases that resolve with an admission of guilt rather than a trial or a lesser charge.
Similar Cases Across the State
Other North Carolina prosecutions show how these cases can shift during litigation. In Pasquotank County, Dontae Williams was arrested and charged on January 20, 2025, after being accused in the fentanyl-overdose death of 29-year-old Jessica Modlin, who was found unresponsive on Egan Lane in Elizabeth City in July 2024 and whose death officials attributed to fentanyl, according to WAVY. Williams was originally charged with death by distribution but ultimately pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and Superior Court Judge Eula Reid sentenced him to 77 to 105 months in prison, the station reports.
The Fowler case lands amid a broader statewide overdose crisis that has strained families and courts alike. From 2000 through 2024, more than 44,500 North Carolinians lost their lives to drug overdoses, with eight dying each day in 2024 alone, according to data attributed to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, though the agency cautions that its more recent estimates are not yet final. Fentanyl-positive deaths statewide had fallen from 262 in July 2023 to 169 in July 2024, per the state medical examiner's office as cited by the Charlotte Observer — a decline that offers little comfort to families like McLean's who lost someone before the numbers started to improve.
