A North Texas man has been convicted of murder after selling fentanyl-laced pills that led to the death of a 25-year-old woman in 2023.
A Collin County jury found 26-year-old Noah Gregory Honesty guilty on June 30 in connection with the overdose death of a 25-year-old woman in Blue Ridge, according to a July 9 press release from the Collin County Sheriff’s Office. Honesty was sentenced to 38 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Noah Gregory Honesty
The case marked one of the first murder convictions in the county under a Texas law signed in 2023 that allows prosecutors to charge individuals with murder if they manufacture or deliver fentanyl that results in someone’s death.
Sheriff Jim Skinner praised the outcome, saying, “If you’re selling this lethal fentanyl in Collin County and someone dies because of it, you’re going to prison for murder. Period—this is about protecting our families and our communities from killers who distribute this poison.”
According to a February 2024 press release, the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, along with the U.S. Marshals Joint East Texas and North Texas Fugitive Task Forces, arrested Honesty in Dallas. Investigators linked him to counterfeit M-30 pills laced with fentanyl sold to the victim before her death on November 19, 2023. The county medical examiner ruled the cause of death as fentanyl toxicity.
A February 2024 report from FOX 4 News stated that deputies were able to identify Honesty as the alleged dealer through the victim’s Instagram account. The affidavit cited by FOX 4 said messages from November 18, 2023, showed the woman arranged to buy twelve pills after work. Her communications with the account “lil3backupaccount” led investigators to a phone number saved in her contacts under the name “Noah.”
Investigators reportedly used forensic tools to match the Instagram account and phone number to Honesty. The affidavit also alleged that Honesty knew the pills were counterfeit Percocet, a prescription opioid painkiller.
Following the arrest, Sheriff Skinner applauded state lawmakers for creating the legal framework to pursue such cases. “My office will continue to vigorously pursue anyone who comes here and distributes fentanyl-laced products that lead to a person’s death,” he said in 2024.
The victim’s father, according to FOX 4, said he had more to share when the time is right and expressed gratitude for the new law.