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Texas mother urges Congress to treat fentanyl deaths as poisoning, calls for federal laws
Summary
Jenna Ellinger testified before the Senate Commerce Committee about losing her 20-year-old son, Jake, to a counterfeit pill laced with fentanyl and described Texas law changes that reclassified such deaths as poisoning and enabled murder prosecutions. She urged Congress to adopt similar federal measures.
Jenna Ellinger, a Texas mother who lost her 20-year-old son, Jake, to a counterfeit pill laced with fentanyl, told the Senate Commerce Committee that state law changes in Texas have allowed prosecutors to pursue murder charges in cases where a fentanyl-laced dose resulted in death.
Ellinger said Jake died on May 6, 2021, after taking what he thought was a Xanax pill and that local and federal investigators told the family the death was being recorded as an accident. "Jake's death was not an accident. He was killed—literally poisoned to death," Ellinger told senators. She said the accidental designation prematurely closed investigations and prevented…
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