Federal jury convicts Omaha man of selling fentanyl pill that killed 4-year-old boy
A federal jury on Wednesday found an Omaha man guilty of selling fentanyl resulting in the death of a 4-year-old boy.
Michael Reis, 29, will face a minimum of 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in January. He is separately set to be sentenced in December after pleading guilty to sex trafficking a minor in an unrelated federal case.
The child鈥檚 mother, 23-year-old Paris Hunt, is set to go to trial in state court in December on one count of negligent child abuse resulting in death. Police and prosecutors say she bought and took half of what she thought was a Percocet pill from Reis before leaving the other half in a pill bottle on her nightstand, which her son then consumed.
According to state and federal court documents, the Douglas County Sheriff鈥檚 Office responded to an Omaha apartment complex about 4:30 p.m. on March 12, 2022, to reports of an unresponsive child. Hunt was administering CPR on the boy when police arrived.
Hunt advised officers that the only thing the boy could have ingested was 鈥渉alf of a Percocet鈥 that was in a bottle on her nightstand. The boy died three days after he was taken to the hospital, and his cause of death was determined to be acute fentanyl toxicity.
In an interview at the hospital, Hunt told officers that she was using pain pills to help with wisdom tooth pain and said she got the pill from a childhood friend, whom she identified as Reis, who said it was Percocet. The pill, a blue M30 tablet, was actually a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl.
According to an arrest affidavit for Hunt, texts recovered from Hunt鈥檚 phone showed Hunt asking Reis to buy one pill about two hours before she called 911. A press release from the U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office said Reis had an 鈥渆xtensive鈥 history of selling pills to Hunt.
鈥淔entanyl and fentanyl dealers are a true scourge in our community,鈥 Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson said in a statement. 鈥淭hose who deal and recklessly possess fentanyl should know that there is no room for them in a safe civil society and that they will be pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.鈥
The case was investigated by the Douglas County Sheriff鈥檚 Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration.