Second Bartow Man Sentenced In Connection With Fentanyl Death

GEORGIA — A Cartersville man has been sentenced to nearly five and a half years in prison for his role in a drug-distribution ring connected to the death of a fentanyl user whose dismembered body was found in a dumpster, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

Joel Macario Jimenez, 41 — also known as “Carlos” — admitted to working with others to distribute and pleaded guilty in 2019 to a felony count related to that admission, according to the statement. He was sentenced Monday to 65 months in prison in a court in Clarksburg, West Virginia, by U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh.

Jimenez is the second Bartow County resident to be sentenced in connection with an operation that trafficked drugs in West Virginia, eventually leading to the death of 20-year-old Courtney Banks.

According to the Justice Department, fentanyl distributed by Terrick Robinson, another co-conspirator, was determined by autopsy to have helped kill Dubois in August 2018. Her dismembered body was later found in a dumpster about to be emptied at the Bartow County Landfill.

Robinson was sentenced in October 2020 to life in prison plus 10 years after he was found guilty of various drug-related charges and gun convictions.

In early July,Seddrick Banks of Cartersville was found guilty of numerous charges related to drug distribution and Dubois’s death. He faces life in prison.

William Gregory Chappell, also of Cartersville, has pleaded guilty to charges related to drug distribution and guns. He has yet to be sentenced.

“This horrific and heinous crime is more than just a drug trafficking case,” Acting U.S. Attorney Randolph J. Bernard said last month. “Banks and his co-conspirators not only preyed on our neighbors with the drugs they were selling, they allowed a young woman to die and disposed of her without any regard or respect for her life.”

RELATED: Cartersville Man Convicted In Dismemberment Of Woman's Body