Murder Charge Filed In Fentanyl Overdose Death: Manatee Sheriff

BRADENTON, FL — A drug dealer was charged with murder more than a year-and-a-half after selling a lethal amount of fentanyl to a woman who he abandoned, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Deputies responded to reports of an unconscious person being found in a vehicle at the Wawa gas station at 14510 State Road 70 E. around 2 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2023.

They found 27-year-old Taylor Moran dead in the back seat of her car, the sheriff’s office said.

The scene indicated a drug overdose with no signs of trauma or foul play.

During the autopsy, a small blue pill was found in Moran’s clothing, which tested positive for fentanyl. Her cause of death was ruled as intoxication due to fentanyl.

About a year later, in August 2024, detectives received information that Moran had reached out to Evan O’Connor, 31, about buying “blues,” which are Oxycodone, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators learned that O’Connor “knowingly and intentionally” sold her pills containing fentanyl without her knowledge, according to the agency.

Moran took the pills in front of O’Connor and another woman and passed out. They put her in the backseat of the bar and left her at the Wawa.

Text messages show that Moran reached out to O’Connor, asking for the pills. Cell phone evidence shows they communicated just before her overdose.

Detectives recorded a Feb. 5 telephone interview with the woman who was with O’Connor on the night they met Moran. She corroborated claims that he gave the victim the pills and “left her at the Wawa to die,” the sheriff’s office said.

O’Connor was arrested Thursday and charged with murder by distribution of fentanyl, a capital first-degree felony

He is currently incarcerated at Holmes Correctional Institution in Bonifay, Florida, for trafficking in fentanyl.