Lake City teen gets 20 years for fentanyl death of 62-year-old man, police said

A 18-year-old Lake City man has plead guilty to manslaughter for giving a 62-year-old man a deadly dose of fentanyl, police said.

The fatal incident came two days after police stopped La’Neil Kha’Nyas Baker, and cited him for fentanyl possession, according to a news release from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.

Police said Baker’s guilty plea will result in 20 years in prison and eight years of probation for manslaughter and drug trafficking.

The death occurred on January 24, two days after Baker spent a day in jail after the traffic stop resulted in drug charges.

Columbia County Sheriff’s Office detectives discovered the dead man as a result of a call to a home on SW Beth drive in Lake City.

A drug task force investigated who provided the drugs that caused the apparent overdose. Baker was identified as a suspect and lab tests matched the drugs in the dead man’s system with the fentanyl found during the traffic stop of Baker.

Baker was arrested on January 29 for conspiracy to traffic Fentanyl. The investigation continued until charges for homicide could be substantiated, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office release said.

Police said it marks only the second known within the Third Judicial Circuit in which a homicide conviction was obtained against an individual for contributing to someone’s death by supplying illegal narcotics.

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