A West Plains woman with a lengthy criminal history involving drugs and felony theft was on probation when she allegedly sold drugs laced with fentanyl to a person, leading to an overdose death in September 2020, court records show.
Carrie J. Braun, 37, is currently serving a sentence in Chillicothe Correctional Center and is now charged with second-degree murder, levied in cases in which a person dies during the perpetration of a felony crime. The charge was filed Dec. 13 by grand jury indictment and a warrant with a $100,000 bond was issued at that time and served to her in prison on Feb. 7, court records show.
She has waived arraignment and entered a not guilty plea, and a counsel status hearing is set for her on Tuesday before Presiding 37th Circuit Judge Steven Privette.
The murder investigation began after officers responded on Sept. 3, 2020, to a home on Westway Drive after a report of a suspected overdose death. Officers found the victim in the house and emergency medical services workers pronounced death about eight minutes later at the scene, a probable cause statement submitted by law enforcement shows.
A consent search of the scene by law enforcement turned up what appeared to be drug paraphernalia and a white substance that was seized and tested positive for fentanyl and methamphetamine by the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab.
About two weeks after the death, a Howell County Sheriff's Office investigator was contacted by a confidential source naming Braun and Thomas M. Bennett, 47, as two people known to have supplied drugs to the victim, and added that Facebook Messenger was used to conduct drug transactions.
That same day, a preservation request was placed regarding the victim's Facebook account and a search warrant was granted for the account two days later, court records show. The investigation showed messages that allegedly detailed drug transactions, and toxicology reports provided to investigators on Oct. 20, 2020, showed the victim died of "acute fentanyl, buprenorphine and ethanol intoxication."
In July or August 2022, an investigator spoke with Braun about the victim's death during a casual conversation and Braun reportedly said the victim had come to her house and bought heroin the evening of the fatal overdose.
The following month, the investigator reviewed Facebook messages sent between the victim, Braun and Bennett, allegedly showing five drug transactions between Aug. 21, 2020, up to about five hours before the victim's death, and under Bennett's Facebook account.
Withdrawals from the victim's bank account correlating with the alleged transactions totaled $1,180 over that time frame.
On Sept. 7, 2022, the investigator conducted a formal interview with Braun, but she declined to give a statement regarding the investigation and requested a lawyer. During a law enforcement interview 13 days later, Bennett allegedly admitted to selling drugs to the victim and stated he and Braun had sold drugs to the victim for about two years, and to his knowledge, he and Braun were the only people that supplied the victim with fentanyl, including on the night the victim overdosed.
The probable cause statement adds Bennett said he heard the victim had overdosed and attempted to call the deceased through Facebook Messenger, then deleted his own Facebook account when the victim did not answer.
Court records show Braun pleaded guilty to felony possession of a controlled substance in February 2022 and was handed a three-year suspended sentence and three years of supervised probation.
In February 2020, court records show, she was handed a five year suspended sentence, also with five years of supervised probation, after entering an Alford plea to a felony charge of stealing $25,000 or more. The charge was related to the theft of an ultrasound machine and laptop from Midwest Mobile Imaging in September 2019 and a later attempt by Braun and another suspect to sell the machine to Talburt Animal Clinic. Probation on both of those cases was revoked in July 2022 after Braun pleaded guilty to felony second-degree drug trafficking in Howell County and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the sentence to run concurrent with the other two cases.
Court records also show Braun pleaded guilty in September 2022 to a felony charge of possession of a controlled substance filed in Phelps County in August 2020. She was sentenced to two years in that case.
Bennett pleaded guilty to two charges of delivery of a controlled substance in December 2021, in two separate cases filed in August 2019 in Howell County, and was sentenced to five years in prison, according to court records, the sentences running concurrently.
