On Feb. 10, 2024, deputies heard loud banging coming from an area of the Pinellas County Jail and found several inmates in varying levels of distress. One man had turned blue and wasn’t breathing. Another inmate’s eyes had rolled back in his head.
The men were overdosing on fentanyl. The episode resulted in seven hospitalizations and the death of 37-year-old Jesse Stout. Three inmates were later indicted on first-degree murder charges.
Now, two years later, one of the men has agreed to a plea deal of 25 years to avoid a possible life sentence and his co-defendants have the option to do the same.
Zachary DeCarlo, 31, Wayne Wilson, 43, and Jason Canady, 44, were accused of working together to distribute fentanyl to the inmates. Canady took a plea deal last week.
DeCarlo swallowed plastic bags of fentanyl before he was taken into custody on Feb. 2, 2024 on charges of possession of cocaine, an indictment states. He overdosed during booking, was taken to the hospital, and returned to the Pinellas County Jail a couple days later.
DeCarlo was housed in Pod 5 of the jail with Canady, records show. On Feb. 10, DeCarlo passed the fentanyl he previously swallowed and sold it to Canady in exchange for commissary and $50 through Cash App, the indictment states.
That same day, Canady distributed the drugs to other inmates in Pod 5. Canady developed a connection with Wilson, who was housed in Pod 6 with Stout, and transferred the fentanyl through the slots that separate the pods, the indictment states. Investigators determined that Wilson gave the fentanyl directly to Stout, who then overdosed and died.
Canady appeared in court last week and pleaded guilty in exchange for a 25-year sentence. Assistant State Attorney Juan Saldivar said the plea was not contingent on Canady providing testimony against the other men.
Wilson and DeCarlo had pretrial hearings Tuesday morning.
Wilson did not appear in the courtroom, and his defense lawyer, Daniel M. Hernandez, asked the judge to grant a motion to try the two remaining defendants separately.
Hernandez claimed surveillance video does not show the actual transfer of contraband, and he has “serious concerns” about “primarily circumstantial evidence.”
“They’re all equally responsible for what happened here,” Saldivar told Judge Philipe Matthey. “If you take one of them out of the equation, the death wouldn’t have happened.”
Matthey denied Hernandez’s motion to try the men separately.
DeCarlo entered a courtroom later Tuesday morning, determined to convince the judge to remove his court-appointed defense attorney James A. Martin.
Matthey held a hearing to question the defendant and the attorney about the DeCarlo’s claim of counsel incompetence.
“I don’t feel like he’s helping me at all,” DeCarlo told the judge, raising his voice as he said Martin never visits him in person and communicates only over email. He also griped about Martin not filing enough motions or conducting depositions.
Matthey told the defendant that Martin has been practicing law for 40 years and has far more experience than most. If he says he won’t file a motion because it wouldn’t help the case, he should believe him, he told DeCarlo.
DeCarlo previously offered the state a deal for 15 years in prison, which was “outright rejected” by State Attorney Bruce Bartlett, who instructed Saldivar not to grant any deals with the defendants for less than 25 years, Saldivar said in court.
Wilson and DeCarlo are scheduled for a final pretrial hearing on Feb. 2, where they could accept the offer for 25 years.
If they reject the deal, their trial is slated for Feb. 9.
