Grandfather raises child after mother’s fatal fentanyl overdose

BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) — Early one July 2022 morning, Jamie Shelton awoke to the loud raps of law enforcement at his door. They had come to tell him his daughter, Shianne Shelton, had passed away from a fentanyl overdose.

“I just went ballistic outside, crying,” Shelton recalled. “[I] fell to my knees, came inside, woke up my other daughter, told her.”

Hours later, Shianne’s son, David, was delivered to his home. Shelton said the boy’s father and Shianne’s fiancé, Jason Easter, told Child Protective Services to take him to his grandfather’s. In a matter of hours, Shelton was forced to transition from grandparent to guardian.

“My youngest daughter, she’s 24 right now. My oldest daughter was 24 when she passed,” said Shelton. “So, you know, I had already raised my kids and it was time for me to be carefree and do whatever I wanted to and enjoy life. Now, you don’t get to spoil them and send them home. You have to be the bad guy and tell them no, teach them right from wrong – give them rules and chores.”

Shelton now wakes David up to go to his first-grade classes every morning.

“We had grandkids that we were going to be able to spoil and have fun with, and now we have a grandkid that’s more or less a son now,” Shelton said.

In the years that have passed, Shelton said it’s been difficult to explain to David what’s happened to his mother.

“At the time, nobody thought David knew anything, but now that he’s gotten older he will tell us stories about the red lights and the blue lights,” Shelton said. “They said he was asleep when they took him out of the house, but he knows what’s going on.

“He’s put two plus two together. He knows his daddy is in jail, and he knows his mommy passed away.”

In March 2023, Easter was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly giving Shianne Shelton the fentanyl that killed her. He was already in the Loudon County Jail on unrelated charges when TBI announced the indictment. Andrew Landon Jackson was also charged in the case.

Shelton goes to every court date for both men charged in his daughter’s death. He said he isn’t sure what a win in court would look like.

“You know more people lost people than just me losing my daughter. It goes deeper and what’s the justice in it? This is an awful, terrible thing because all it does is continue to destroy families,” said Shelton.

Shianne Shelton was one of the 2,797 Tennesseans and 44 in Sullivan County to die of a fentanyl overdose in 2022.

Easter is expected to appear in court again in December 2024.

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