Police in the Florida Keys say a Miami-Dade County man they arrested in April on drug trafficking charges is the head of a fentanyl distribution ring that spans from the southern mainland down through the island chain.
While he sat in Monroe County jail on the drug charges, a grand jury Friday indicted him on a capital murder charge in the September 2022 overdose death of a Grassy Key woman, said Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield.
Melvin Howard, 56, is being held in county jail on a $1.3 million bond on murder, fentanyl trafficking and conspiracy charges, as well as a charge of using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony.
The murder stems from the Sept. 2, 2022, death of 53-year-old Amanda Roberts. The woman who detectives say directly sold the dose of fentanyl that killed her is Alexis Joy Sather, 24, of Marathon. She was also charged with murder and is in county jail on a bond of $510,000 in the pending case.
Detectives say she was supplied with the drugs by Howard.
Her attorney, Marla Levenstein, declined to comment when reached this week. Howard’s attorney, Richard Della Fera, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Monroe sheriff’s spokesman Adam Linhardt said Howard’s arrest in April was the result of a 15-month investigation by the office’s Special Investigations Division and the Drug Enforcement Administration that found he “was spearheading the distribution of approximately 4.5 kilograms of fentanyl throughout Monroe County.”
“I want to thank the men and woman of the Sheriff’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office, and our federal partners with the DEA, for their continued hard work to ensure that those who peddle this poison in our community are held to account,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement.