‘I’m doing as best I can’: Mom of Orange Beach fentanyl victim in court to see defendants charged in her death
UPDATED (4:53 p.m.): A mother sat in a Baldwin County courtroom for hours hoping to find out more about what led to her daughter’s death on June 29 from a fentanyl overdose, but that didn’t happen.
Three of the four defendants, Roshell Benson, Malia Dacautor, and Madison Hayek gave up their right to a preliminary hearing. That means a Baldwin County Grand Jury will now hear the case and determine if it will move forward.
“I’m doing okay,” says Kelley Sanders, “as best as I can.”
Two months ago her daughter Skyelar died of a fentanyl overdose. Sanders went to the courtroom to continue her search for answers and possibly justice.
“The outcome was going to be the same either way because I was confident it was going to go to trial given the tremendous amount of evidence against them.”
For the first time since her daughter’s death, she was in the same room with Benson, Hayek, and Decautur. All of them were friends of her daughter and now are all charged with her death for allegedly supplying the fentanyl that took her life.
“We didn’t have a conversation so I can’t speak on that for their remorse but there was no, the body language didn’t say it. There was no head down, there wasn’t anything. I just felt like they were just like, ‘Oh well, I’m just here.'”
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Assistant District Attorney Patrick Doggett is prosecuting the case and while he has spoken to Sanders many times since the investigation began, this was their first meeting in person.
“We had a conversation today, she and I did, about the wheels of justice moving. They don’t move fast but they are moving and we want to make sure we do things right and not necessarily fast and that’s what happened today.”
All three defendants have been in jail since their arrest and they will stay there, at least for now as the judge denied requests to reduce their bonds.
“There is some peace knowing they are here and not on the streets,” says Sanders.
A fourth suspect in this case, Gerald Anderson, III, was not in court. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for October.
Hayek and Benson also face a second manslaughter charge in the fentanyl-overdose death of Taz Grayson on June 1. That investigation was already underway at the time of Sanders’s death.
Since the arrest of all four defendants prosecutors say more information has been provided to law enforcement about other deaths. Doggett encourages anyone with information about fentanyl overdoses where they know the people involved to contact the District Attorney’s Office or law enforcement.
The National Drug Helpline is open 24/7 to any individual dealing with addiction issues, including family members and other loved ones at 1-844-289-0879.
ORIGINAL STORY:
BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WKRG) — Three suspects are set to appear in court this afternoon for a preliminary hearing in connection with an overdose death, News 5 has learned.
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Those suspects are Madison Hayek, Malia Decautur, and Roshell Benson.
According to previous reporting, Hayek, Decautur, and Benson, and Gerald Anderson, were accused of selling 25-year-old Skyelar Sanders of Orange Beach drugs that she ultimately overdosed and died from.
This afternoon, Hayek, Decautur, and Benson are set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing to see if there is enough evidence to move forward in a manslaughter trial.
Anderson was also charged with manslaughter in connection with selling Sanders the fentanyl that killed her, but is not set to appear in court.
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Sanders’ mother, Kelly Sanders, previously spoke with News 5 about her daughter and the addiction problem, noting that she thinks tougher consequences like the manslaughter charges the four are facing could help in addition to getting fentanyl off the streets.
This is a developing story. News 5 will update this article as more information becomes available.
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