Prosecutors secured the first conviction in Tarrant County under a new state law allowing defendants to be charged with murder in some fentanyl overdose deaths, the district attorney’s office announced Thursday.

A law passed in 2023 allows prosecutors to seek murder charges against someone who gives another person a fatal dose of fentanyl.

A 19-year-old drug dealer is the first defendant in Tarrant County to be sentenced to prison for murder under a new Texas state law.

This is the first conviction for the county under a new state law allowing for prosecutors to seek murder charges in some fentanyl deaths, according to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.

This conviction is the first in Tarrant County under the new Texas law allowing prosecutors to charge individuals with murder if they make or deal fentanyl that causes death. “We are working hard to get the people who sell this poison off the streets,” Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells said.