The two dealers behind the supply of fentanyl-laced cocaine that killed a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student on Duke’s campus in March 2023 were sentenced to prison.
Sandra Hairston, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, announced Wednesday that Cye Frasier was sentenced to 29 years in prison Wednesday and Carlisa Allen was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Feb. 13.
Frasier, a Durham drug dealer known as “The Barber,” and Allen, Frasier’s girlfriend and partner, were charged last year in an 18-month-long drug trafficking conspiracy that had killed Grace Burton, a 19-year-old UNC student who fatally overdosed in a Kilgo common room, and Joshua Zinner, a 23-year-old Raleigh resident who fatally overdosed a day after Burton’s death.
Both Burton and Zinner died after ingesting cocaine laced with fentanyl purchased from the Allen and Frasier drug conspiracy.
“The heinous and inhumane actions of these defendants led to the senseless loss of two young lives,” Harriston said. “While nothing will ever erase the pain of the families who suffered these tremendous losses, the sentences send a strong message of deterrence to people who consider selling poisonous mixtures of illegal drugs.”
According to the announcement, evidence presented at the trial included Cash App and Venmo records, text messages and photographs that demonstrated how Frasier and Allen “marketed themselves to local college students as a source of narcotics, primarily cocaine.”
Patrick Anthony Rowland, a Duke undergraduate who had overdosed with Burton the night of her death but survived, was sentenced to three months in federal prison in December on charges of using a cell phone to distribute cocaine and marijuana from September 2022 to March 2023.
Court documents for Rowland, who was not charged with Burton’s death or his actions following her overdose, had shown approximately 1,140 text messages between Rowland and Frasier. Rowland purchased marijuana and cocaine from Frasier, then supplied the drugs to other Duke students.
Documents also showed that Allen and Frasier sold marijuana and cocaine to both Rowland and Burton on multiple occasions. Burton had initially wanted and paid for cocaine early in the morning of her March 9 overdose. Frasier had sold the cocaine that night, but neither Rowland nor Burton was aware that it was laced with fentanyl.
Frasier and Allen will be subject to supervised release for five years following their releases from prison. U.S. District Judge William Osteen also ordered both defendants to pay restitution to the families of Burton and Zinner for $8,000 and $11,304, respectively.
The case was investigated by various law enforcement organizations working in partnership, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Durham Police Department and the Duke University Police Department.
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Jazper Lu is a Trinity senior and centennial/elections editor for The Chronicle's 120th volume. He was previously managing editor for Volume 119.