A Grandview, Missouri, man was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for the fentanyl-related death of a Shawnee Mission East High School teenager.
On Wednesday, Judge Christina Dunn Gyllenborg sentenced Cameron Bryant, 28, to 140-months in prison for felony distribution of drugs that caused the death of 18-year-old Olivia Piotrowski.
Along with another fentanyl-related death, that of Shawnee teen Cooper Davis, Piotrowski’s untimely death brought to light the fentanyl crisis’s impact on Johnson County and spurred local moves at both intervention and enforcement.
Piotrowski was an SM East student-athlete
Last summer, Bryant was charged with one count of distributing an illegal drug that caused Piotrowski’s death.
He also faced five other felony counts of using a cell phone to facilitate the commission of the drug distribution crime, which were ultimately dismissed.
At the time of her death in September 2021 death, Piotrowski, had just started her senior year at Shawnee Mission East.
A cross-country and track athlete, as well as a lover of fashion and modeling, Pitrowski was known for her enthusiasm and energy.
“You could count on Olivia to make a joke even in the most serious situations, but also delve deep during late night conversations,” a friend wrote on a memorial page set up in the wake of Piotrowski’s death. “She was a friend for a lifetime, and a world without her in it has been hard to comprehend.”
Jury trial coming in another high-profile fentanyl case
On Thursday, a five-day jury trial was scheduled for Aaron Hansberry, 29, who faces one felony court of distributing an illegal drug that caused another Johnson County teen, Cooper Davis’s, death.
The trial is set to start on Monday, May 6, and take place in the courtroom of Judge Michael P. Joyce at Johnson County District Court in downtown Olathe.
A jury pool is currently being selected, Joyce said in court Thursday.
Hansberry faces the trial in connection to the August 2021 death of Davis, a Mill Valley High School junior, who died after taking what he believed was Percocet but turned out to be a pill laced with a fatal dose of fentanyl, court records show.
Davis’s death prompted more awareness of fake pills containing the drug and the dangers they pose to teens.
That growing awareness has also prompted local public school districts, including USD 232, Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley, to stock the anti-overdose nasal spray drug Narcan.
Both cases helped fuel crackdowns on fentanyl
In a previous interview with the Johnson County Post, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe praised the 10th anniversary of the Kansas Legislature amending its law to increase sentences for manufacturing a fentanyl-related controlled substance in pill or capsule form from a level two to a level one felony.
“This statute was put into law before fentanyl became as dangerous and prevalent as it is now,” he said. “So, we’re so happy that it’s in place now because we know from just watching the news each and every day, how many people are impacted directly, either seriously injured or dying.”
The hope, he said, is to save lives and prevent cases like these from happening in the future.
“‘There are quite a few overdoses and deaths occurring in Johnson County because of fentanyl and so, it becomes even more important for us to try and figure out strategies to stem the tide of this horrible drug,” he said. “If you’re dealing death — which is fentanyl — to other individuals, there will be repercussions for your actions.”
Go deeper: How local educators are tackling the fentanyl crisis
