A Joplin man has had one opportunity after another to turn his life around and break away from his addiction, but continues to return to crime and should spend 10 years in prison.
That assessment was included in a sentencing memorandum filed today in U. S District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
The sentencing hearing for Cody Dalton Romines, 40, is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Springfield.
From the memorandum:
In this case, the defendant was distributing a significant amount of fentanyl in southwest Missouri. On May 17, 2021, as part of an ongoing fentanyl investigation, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop on the defendant’s vehicle based on a belief that he was transporting a large quantity of fentanyl to Joplin, Missouri, for distribution.Upon law enforcement attempting to conduct a traffic stop, the defendant accelerated to 90 miles per hour, failed to stop for approximately two miles, and threw a bag that contained more than 170 grams of fentanyl out the window.
In a post-Miranda interview, the defendant admitted he was transporting the fentanyl for distribution in the Joplin, Missouri, area, that he had done so before, and that he had been selling heroin for years.
The defendant is being held accountable for 344 grams of fentanyl in this case. A single dose of fentanyl, approximately one-tenth of a gram, can be fatal. The defendant is responsible for distributing nearly 3,500 doses, which only amplifies the danger of his conduct.
To make matters worse, the defendant knows the serious risk of overdose as he admitted to law enforcement in his post-Miranda interview that he was aware people were dying from fentanyl overdoses and he himself suffered an overdose from fentanyl and methamphetamine and was hospitalized and in a coma for approximately 47 days.
Locally, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services provides that in 2021 there were 1,581 opioid overdose deaths in Missouri, nearly a 15 percent increase from the 1,375 opioid overdose deaths in Missouri residents in 2020. See https://health.mo.gov/data/opioids/
Starker still, the number of non-heroin opioid overdose deaths in Missouri has risen from 870 in 2019, to 1,230 in 2020, to 1,493 in 2021. Id. This more than 70 percent increase in just two years demonstrates the damage that fentanyl is doing to Missourians and illustrates the danger the defendant’s conduct presented by furthering the sale of such poison in our community.
The defendant’s criminal history – while not as significant as many of the defendants that appear before the Court for sentencing – makes a few things quite clear, he has significant problems with substance abuse, he lacks respect for the rule of law, and he will violate it to suit his needs.
His criminal history also demonstrates the opportunities he has had to change his ways, learn to deal with his addictions, and take his life in a different direction.
At each fork in the road, rather than learn from his past, the defendant chose to return to drugs. Such repeated return to criminal activity supports the Government’s recommended sentence. The Government recognizes that the recommended sentence is significant, and even more so considering this will be the defendant’s first felony conviction. Nonetheless, the defendant’s conduct has established that such a sentence is necessary. His statements following his arrest demonstrate that he knew the dangers his conduct presented. His own fentanyl overdose further demonstrates that awareness, however, despite that knowledge, he chose to continue to inject poison into the community, risking the lives of others and imputing the same addictions from which he has suffered onto other people.
The defendant is a young man with a lot of life to live after he serves his time in prison. It is the Government’s hope and belief that its recommended sentence is sufficient to deter the defendant from returning to criminal ways when he is released, instill in him respect for the law, and provide him with the time and resources to deal with his addiction.
The Government respectfully requests that this Court sentence the defendant to a term of incarceration of 120 months and a five-year term of supervised release.
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