TAMPA, Fla. — It’s been five years since a 17-year-old Tampa Bay-area teenager died from a drug overdose.
After all this time, the family of Katie Golden says they now have closure after the person accused of selling her the deadly drugs pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
“She is missed every day," said Cliff Golden when talking about his 17-year-old daughter.
Cliff and Dawn Golden have spent the past five years waiting for some acountability after the Plant High School student's death.
“When your daughter dies of drugs, people like to blame the parents, blame the child and there was a guy selling poison to our kids," Cliff Golden said.
That man, prosecutors say, was Garland Layton. He was facing first-degree murder charges after he was accused of selling Katie heroin back in 2017. Days before his trial was set to begin, he plead guilty to manslaughter in a deal that will put him behind bars for 10 years.
“It is justice for Katie," Cliff Golden said.
Right now, the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s office has seven other people facing a death by distribution charge. Back in April, Crystal Post, who was facing a first-degree murder charge, also plead guilty to manslaughter.
“This was our first opioid prosecution in this jurisdiction in many years and first to involve a teenager," said Scott Harmon, the Assistant State Attorney with the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office.
The death by distribution law is something not something that had been used much as 10 Investigates first explained in April. Then, we questioned then State Attorney Andrew Warren about these cases and why with so many overdose deaths, there have only been nine people charged with death by distribution.
He told us they’ve used the charge the most in the state.
“These cases are hard for police to investigate. Sometimes there’s no witnesses or receipts or clear records where the drugs came from," Warren said at the time.
With Layton’s plea, Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon says to expect more dealers faced with a murder charge as opioids like fentanyl continue to take lives across the Tampa Bay area.
“And we're going to see time in prison for these dealers and distributors," Harmon said.