Uintah County Man Charged in Death Resulting Drug Crime

Salt Lake City, Utah - A Utah man was ordered to remain in custody by a U.S. Magistrate Judge for his alleged involvement in a death resulting drug case from Uintah County, Utah. On April 17, 2024, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging the defendant with supplying fentanyl to a victim that killed her.

According to court documents, Jerod Arthur Young, 48, of Fort Duchesne, Utah, intentionally distributed fentanyl to the victim on November 15, 2023, which resulted in her death. During the investigation, law enforcement determined from the victim's phone that she communicated with Young and engaged in a financial transaction with him around her time of death. The fentanyl pill near her body when she was found deceased tested positive for fentanyl, and a medical examiner determined that the cause of the victim's death was fentanyl toxicity, and that the amount of fentanyl in the victim's system was toxic and lethal.

Young is charged with distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. His initial court appearance on the indictment was May 1, 2024, before a U.S. Magistrate Judge at the United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City. A three day trial is scheduled for July 9, 2024.

U.S. Attorney, Trina A. Higgins, of the District of Utah made the announcement.

The case is being investigated by the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office's Vernal Resident Agency.

Assistant United States Attorney Sam Pead of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.