By Wayne Gates

A Cincinnati man will spend just over 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to causing the drug overdose death of a Ripley woman last September.

London O’Neal pleaded guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter and Trafficking in a Fentanyl-Related Compound before Common Pleas Judge Scott Gusweiler on May 31.

Gusweiler sentenced O’Neal to four years in prison for the Involuntary Manslaughter charge and 11 years on the Fentanyl charge. He also sentenced O’Neal to serve 594 days for violating post-release control on an Aggravated Robbery charge in 2007 from Hamilton County. All sentences were ordered to be served consecutively.

O’Neal was originally indicted on 22 drug related counts by a Brown County Grand Jury on Dec. 13, 2018 following the death of Aundrea Phillips in Ripley in September of that year.

Last December, Brown County Prosecutor Zac Corbin discussed how the case began.

“We had a call down in Ripley in September for a drug overdose and the coroner’s report showed that she died of a heroin/fentanyl combination. The drug task force began investigating that case and that led them to Mr. O’Neal.”

Corbin said that multiple agencies began an investigation, which ended in November with a search warrant on O’Neal’s property.

“That’s where they located about sixty grams of a heroin/fentanyl mixture, which led to the first degree felony charges for trafficking in fentanyl,” he said. A press release from the Brown County Drug and Major Crimes Task Force put the value of the seized drugs at $30,000.

“The drug task force did a great job in investigating this case, which shows the value of having a drug task force. They can be proactive and devote the time and resources to finding the sources of illegal drugs.”

Corbin said that the work to trace drugs back to the source will continue.

“If Brown County residents are driving to other cities and bringing the drugs back here and using them, we can arrest those who are selling the drugs. If you are dealing in drugs to Brown County residents, we are going to find you and we are going to charge you,” he said.

“We are going to work our way back up the chain. Even if it takes us outside of Brown County, we are going to do everything we can to find the source of the drugs that are coming into our communities and killing our residents.”

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