After reportedly providing a 24-year-old woman a fatal amount of fentanyl, a 26-year-old male in Texas was taken into custody. According to court filings, Eric Sembera was arrested last week and charged with one count of fentanyl murder by delivery in connection with Erica Russell’s death.
Officers from the Tomball Police Department responded to a request for a welfare check on Russell at her residence in the 29000 block of Tomball Parkway on the morning of August 4, per a probable cause affidavit. According to the caller, Russell has not been returning her calls.
Investigators discovered that on the evening of August 2, Russell went out with Sembera and did not go to work the next day. Russell went to the ER at HCA Houston Health Care — Tomball for “an apparent fentanyl overdose” in the early hours of August 3, according to a coworker who notified police.
According to the police affidavit, Sembera accompanied Russell to the hospital and described him as a “known narcotics user.”
When police contacted Sembera, she told them that sometime early on August 3, after leaving Russell at the ER, he took him back to her apartment.
According to the affidavit, Sembera allegedly told Russell that he had experienced “an addiction problem” with “Oxy” in the past while they were traveling to a bar after work with another female coworker. Russell was initially hesitant when he offered him some of the white powder drug after he performed a “bump” of it.
“Sembera stated ‘[Russell] finally was Just like, okay whatever, do it,'” according to the affidavit. “And so I pulled out a little bit and dropped it on her phone,” he allegedly continued, adding it was “straight Fentanyl” that was in “rock and powder form.”
According to Sembera, they returned to Russell’s flat after leaving the bar at around two in the morning, where they had sex. Sembera claimed that after they returned outside to his car, Russell “just stopped talking” and started to nod off until he became aware that she was no longer responding. He claimed that after performing CPR, he entered “freak out mode” and drove to the emergency department.
According to reports, Russell received medical attention, including an IV. She said, “I don’t want to be here anymore,” and “asked the doctors if she could leave” when Russell woke up a few hours later.
According to the affidavit, “Sembera said that Russell was waiting for a long time, and at last she just jumped out of bed and pulled the IV out of her arm.” “Let’s go,” Russell urged, according to Sembera.
According to investigators, Sembera then claimed to have left Russell off at her flat and headed straight home. Additionally, he allegedly admitted to smoking fentanyl with his live-in girlfriend two or three times a day. According to the police, they thought the white rocks and powder they discovered in Sembera’s car were fentanyl.
Mark Thering, Sembera’s defense lawyer, told a news outlet that the charge against his client is absurd.
“This is a tragic accident, not a crime,” Thering stated. “Unfortunately, he has had troubles with addiction, and he’s currently inpatient therapy and has been diagnosed with addiction disorder.”
