A Lancaster man will serve up to 25 years in prison for providing fentanyl to Lancaster County Prison inmates, causing one of them to die of overdose last year.
Christopher Franco-Robles, 21, placed the fentanyl in a trash can outside the prison, where an inmate on trash collection duty took it and ingested it.
That man, a 38-year-old, died on March 28, 2019. The other inmate who ingested the drugs also overdosed.
Lancaster County Judge Thomas Sponaugle sentenced Franco-Robles this week to 7 to 25 years in prison.
Franco-Robles pleaded guilty to drug delivery resulting in death and related felonies in exchange for the prison term.
Assistant District Attorney Travis Anderson, who arranged the plea terms, said Franco-Robles also was ordered to pay $4,600 for the victim’s funeral costs.
Recorded prison phone calls revealed Franco-Robles and his father conspired to provide the drugs to inmates, including Franco-Robles’ brother, who was an inmate. The brother never received the drugs.
The father, Jaime Franco-Quinones, discussed the overdose incidents in a separate prison phone call a day after the overdoses.
“I sent that, so they could jump like rabbits in there,” Franco-Quinones said to an inmate during the phone call.
Franco-Quinones, 50, is also charged with drug delivery resulting in death and related counts. His case is pending. He is presumed innocent.
Lancaster city police Detective Sgt. Nathan Nickel filed charges.
MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright