A Texas man was charged with murder after his young friend overdosed on fentanyl while out partying for her birthday.
Erica Russell, 24, was out celebrating her birthday with friends, including her manager Eric Sembera, after getting off a shift at a restaurant in Tomball, near Houston, Texas, in August.
Sembera, 26, allegedly asked Russell if she ‘wanted to do a bump’ of drugs before he ‘dumped’ powder onto her phone and she inhaled it, Click 2 Houston reported.
She later nodded off and Sembera took her to the hospital, which they later left against medical advice, investigators said. He dropped his friend and coworker off at her apartment and that was the last time anyone heard from her.
Now, Sembera, who has had addiction problems in the past, faces a murder by fentanyl charge, a first-degree felony, and was arrested last week – four months after her death.
The charge is new, as the law only took effect in September 2023, and has been handed out only a few times.
Sembera’s lawyers call the charge ‘ridiculous.’
‘This is a tragic accident, not a crime,’ Mark Thering told Click 2 Houston. ‘This wasn’t a drug dealer, it wasn’t somebody who was pushing fentanyl on people.
‘Unfortunately, he has had troubles with addiction and he’s currently in patient therapy and has been diagnosed with addiction disorder.’
Sembera is out on $100,000 bail, according to Click 2 Houston.
But for Russell’s mother, she’s been left ‘in pain every single day of my life.’
‘Losing my daughter, losing my Erica was, there’s no comparison,’ she said. ‘My daughter was out there living her life. And it was the best she’s ever done in her life. And I was proud of her.
‘I haven’t figured out how to live without my daughter.’
Russell had only lived in Texas less than a year, her mother told the outlet, and she insisted that if her daughter had known what the substance was, she wouldn’t have taken it.
‘It is a death sentence. If you mess around with fentanyl, there’s a huge chance you’re going to die,’ she said.
Russell’s overdose was the second one in Tomball this year and Police Chief Jeffrey Bert said this is ‘grippingly frightening for people.’
Tomball Police have responded to dozens of calls over the years, many involving young people, and had to use Narcan at least 35 times in the last two years, Click 2 Houston reported.
In 2020, the department opted to sell off its gyrocopters in turn for a narcotics K9 unit, which has helped with more than 150 drug-related cases, according to Bert.
This year, police have taken more than 300 grams of the substance off the streets of Tomball.
‘From my seat, not just as a cop, but as a dad of four beautiful daughters, I think it’s essential, I think our nation has to recognize and that this is an epidemic,’ Bert said.