Teen Will Stand Trial As Adult In Deadly Overdose Of Teen Girl

WEST ST. PAUL, MN — A Bloomington man has been certified to stand trial as an adult in the deadly overdose of a 15-year-old West St. Paul girl.

Parker J. Benson was charged last summer with third-degree murder after police said he provided a girl with fentanyl on April 20, 2022. The case will be tried in adult court after a judge granted a motion from Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena.

Benson was three months shy of his 18th birthday at the time of the girl's death.

According to investigators, a mother told police that after going to bed at 11 p.m. on April 20, she woke up and noticed a light coming from her daughter's bedroom. The mother entered to find her daughter face down on her bed with a blue pill next to her, authorities said.

The mother rolled her over and saw that her daughter was blue in the face, so she called 911 and started CPR, according to police.

The girl was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the cause of death as "fentanyl toxicity," according to police.

The girl's cell phone was given to the Dakota County Electronic Crimes Unit, police said. According to their investigation, on April 16, a Snapchat conversation between the girl and "Parker" — who was later identified as Benson — began with the girl asking "do you come to west st. paul."

Benson responded "yes watcha need" on April 17, police said.

On April 19, the two made arrangements for Benson to meet up and sell the girl four "perk" pills for $60, according to authorities. Just after 9 p.m., Benson messaged, "pulling up," and the girl later messaged "thanks bro next time I’ll buy more," the police said.

Less than an hour later, Benson messaged the girl to "only take like less than a quarter of it," according to authorities. Just after 2 a.m., Benson messaged her again, asking "they hitting?" police said.

There was no response from the girl, according to police.

Police said they also uncovered the girl's photographs in social media memories from the evening of April 19 between 9:12 p.m. and 9:38 p.m.

Those images showed the following, according to authorities:

• 9:12 p.m. — An image showed a hand holding blue pills contained in plastic wrap
• 9:25 p.m. — An image showed four blue pills with "M" on the pill atop what appeared to be a blanket
• 9:25 p.m. — About 20 seconds later, another image showed four blue pills lined up on a makeup case with two of the pills with the "M" side up and two with “30” side up
• 9:33 p.m. — An image showed four lines of powder on a makeup case

At 9:44 p.m., the girl sent a photo to her friend over Instagram of blue pills contained in plastic wrap, police said.