Atlantic City man pleads guilty in fatal drug overdose

An Atlantic City man pleaded guilty Monday to selling the drugs that killed a man last July.

The 44-year-old victim, identified only as B.F., was found unresponsive with a needle in his arm inside a parked car in Atlantic City on July 5, 2023.

Investigators recovered nine folds from the vehicle that later tested positive for fentanyl. The autopsy determined B.F. died of a fentanyl overdose.

William Jenkins brought Narcan to a drug deal eight days later, warning the woman that it could be the same thing that killed B.F., who the woman said was her friend.

“I just started grabbing shit again, and if it’s the same … I’m thinking of, I told him to do half a bag and he f------ OD’d,” Jenkins allegedly told her.

The woman was not the victim's friend. Instead, she was an undercover officer, and Jenkins was arrested.

Inside his pants pocket, investigators located a long straight-blade knife which was consistent with a dagger, leading to a weapon charge.

He was jailed on the drug and weapon charges at that time. Jenkins was charged in the death in January, and held after a second detention hearing. He already had been kept in jail after the earlier hearing.

Jenkins pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree strict liability for causing a drug-induced death, third-degree distribution of a controlled dangerous substance and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a prohibited weapon.

He is expected to be sentenced to 11 years in prison with parole ineligibility for 85 percent under the No Early Release Act. That would be about nine years and four months, minus the year he has already been in jail.

Jenkins would be subject to intensive parole supervision for five years upon his release.

He is expected to be sentenced in September. He remains in the Atlantic County Justice Facility.