Semmes teen granted bond after fentanyl manslaughter arrest

MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. ( WKRG ) — A teenager suspected of dealing a fatal dose of fentanyl to a recent Mary G. Montgomery graduate was granted bond on Friday.

Brayden Hollie, 19, was arrested on Thursday. He was charged with manslaughter under a new fentanyl statute for the death of 18-year-old Jayce Ward.

A judge set Hollie’s bond at $40,000.

Ward’s family believed that Ward took what he thought was a Percocet on Aug. 5. Ward was found dead the next day.

“Jayce was a wonderful child,” Ashely Rowell, Ward’s Aunt, said.

Rowell said Ward had recently gotten out of a voluntary 33-day inpatient drug rehab. The teen was found dead just 48 hours after he left.

Rowell was seen sitting in the front row of the courtroom, listening to the judge speak with Hollie on a virtual meeting with Metro Jail inmates.

“While this will be a terribly painful process to go through, it’s a part of the process and it is what is necessary,” Rowell said.

Ward had plans to join the United States Army in the Fall, according to Rowell. She said Ward was in the recruiting process.

“His main priority was to travel. He wanted to see the world,” Rowell said. “That’s the road that he was trying to go down.”

Hollie is the second person in Mobile County to be charged with manslaughter under a new fentanyl statute. That statute allowed District Attorney Keith Blackwood to charge Hollie with manslaughter for ‘knowingly distributing fentanyl to someone, leading to their death.’

“It’s cut into pills that look legitimate. It’s cut into other illegal drugs and just one pill is enough to kill someone. And you don’t know how much fentanyl is in it,” Blackwood said.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office took over the case on Tuesday.

“Once we identify you as selling or trafficking fentanyl where it’s caused a death, we will get a search warrant, we will kick your door down and we will take your a– to jail,” Sheriff Paul Burch said. “It’s just that simple.”

Burch said his office is using Hollie’s arrest to track a trail of drug dealers. The sheriff’s office arrested Deandre Brown, 37, on Sept. 16 while investigating the death of a 17-year-old boy. MCSO said Brown also sold the drugs that killed Ward.

During the investigation, MCSO arrested Kaleb Harden, 18, and charged him with manslaughter.
Investigators believed Harden gave the drugs to the 17-year-old after buying them from Brown.

“It’s a new phenomenon over the last couple of years,” Burch said. “It’s going to take a few of these types of cases to work the bugs out.”

Burch said fentanyl is pouring into the United States from the southern border.

“It comes from China, and it’s transported to Mexico and to the labs of the cartel,” Burch said. “Nowadays, it’s basically walked across the border.”

Manslaughter with the fentanyl statute is a Class B Felony. If found guilty, Hollie faces up to 20 years in prison.

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