A Mahtomedi man who admitted to selling pills that contained fentanyl and caused an Oak Park Heights teen’s fatal overdose has been sentenced to 25 years of probation.

Jeremiah Eugene Palmore, 21, pleaded guilty in July to third-degree murder in connection with the 17-year-old girl’s death in May 2021.

Jeremiah Eugene Palmore (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Palmore’s sentence Friday from Washington County District Judge Douglas Meslow was a downward departure from state sentencing guidelines. The judge stayed an 8½-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors argued against a stayed sentence.

In a phone interview after the hearing, Palmore’s attorney, Laurel O’Rourke, said Palmore is “deeply remorseful” over the teen’s death; she said the two were friends. “He cared very much about her,” she said.

Palmore has served 354 days in Washington County jail custody since his arrest “and absorbed a lot of good information from the in-jail treatment program,” O’Rourke said. “He’s young, and I know he’s riddled with guilt with this, and that he wants to make sure that she didn’t die in vain and that he lives a good life.”

According to the August 2022 criminal complaint, the girl’s mother called 911 on May 12, 2021, after finding her daughter lying face down in her bed. A bag of pills — stamped “M50” was found stuffed in the girl’s bra. Officers also found a “toot straw,” commonly used to snort drugs, inside the girl’s wallet.

The pills were sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s laboratory for testing and were found to contain 0.1 gram of fentanyl.

The medical examiner ruled the cause of death a fentanyl overdose.

Witnesses said the teen went to meet Palmore, also known as “Jay Wassy,” two days prior to her death; Palmore, they said, had a reputation for providing pills.

The girl’s Snapchat account showed messages exchanged with Palmore where the two of them “talked about (him) selling 3 ‘percs’ (percocet) for $75,” the complaint says.

A witness told police that the girl, after visiting Palmore at his apartment in Mahtomedi on May 10, 2021, for about 15 minutes, “did not seem herself and started falling asleep on the way home,” the complaint says. Once at her house, the girl threw up in her front yard and complained about having a bad headache.

Several small baggies imprinted with a dollar sign, which matched the baggie containing the pills found on the girl, were found in Palmore’s apartment. Palmore denied the bags were his, but a DNA sample taken from one of the pills belonging to the teen matched his DNA.

Mother’s words

As part of probation, Palmore must abstain from using drugs and alcohol and will be subject to random testing. He must complete the long-term treatment program at Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge. He graduated from the short-term program Friday morning.

O’Rourke said that at the end of the hearing, before the judge’s sentencing order, the girl’s mother approached and said she had something to tell Palmore.

“She gave him a huge hug,” O’Rourke said, “and she was weeping and he was crying. And she was like, ‘You have to live a good life.’

“It was very powerful. The strength of her to be able to hug him and encourage him, it was extremely moving. There wasn’t a dry eye in that courtroom at that moment.”

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