An Ontario drug dealer who sold fentanyl-laced cocaine that killed a man found guilty of manslaughter

A Brantford, Ont., drug dealer who sold cocaine mixed with fentanyl to a man fresh off a round of golf with his brother has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Matthew Grout and Robert Davies played a round together at the local course on June 13, 2020, before splitting a pitcher of beer at a nearby tavern. Then they picked up their friend Sheldon Gittens and decided to buy some cocaine.

During a stop at the home of Jeremy Folk on Grand River Avenue, Grout shelled out $180 for two grams of cocaine, which was laced with fentanyl. Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice heard both the customer and dealer snorted some of the drug before Grout returned to his older brother and their buddy in the car.

“I accept Matt’s evidence that he has little memory of the events that occurred after he got back into Rob’s car. His next memory was waking up in Rob’s residence lying on the kitchen floor. The only partial memory he has of this time was a memory of sitting in the rear of Rob’s car and Sheldon turning around to tell Matt that he was acting weird,” Justice Joseph Henderson wrote in a recent decision.

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Once they got to Davies’ place, his younger brother was slow to get out of the car.

“Rob then walked back to the vehicle and leaned in to talk to Matt. Eventually, Matt opened the car door and exited the vehicle, but he appeared to be very unsteady on his feet and took a circuitous route to get to the rear door of Rob’s building,” said the judge’s decision.

Despite this odd behaviour, the three pals chopped up some of the drugs and each snorted a line.

Grout “did his line first,” said Henderson’s decision, dated Aug. 19.

“Thereafter, I accept Sheldon’s testimony that Matt started behaving in a strange manner. I find that Matt laid on the coffee table and was very fidgety to the point that Sheldon and Rob looked at each other wondering what was happening. Sheldon then did his line of the substance, and thereafter Sheldon admittedly has no memory until he woke up in hospital.”

Davies was the last man to try the drugs.

”After they each consumed a line of the substance, I find that all three of the friends passed out or lost consciousness,” said the judge.

“Matt was the first to wake up. When he regained consciousness, he was lying on the floor in the kitchen and the fridge door was open. I accept Matt’s evidence that he knew something was wrong and he started to panic. Matt saw that Rob and Sheldon were sitting beside each other on the couch in the living room. They were both unconscious, but Sheldon was breathing. Rob was not breathing.”

Grout called 911 at 9:15 p.m. “The 911 dispatcher instructed him to move Rob and Sheldon to the floor, which he did. Matt also performed CPR on Rob under the direction of the 911 dispatcher.”

When paramedics arrived, Davies “had no vital signs and was unconscious. His respiration was zero, blood pressure was zero, and heart rate was zero.”

One paramedic “conducted or directed CPR on Rob, applied a defibrillator, and gave Rob two injections of epinephrine. Rob never regained consciousness and his vital signs remained absent. At 9:41 p.m., after consulting with a medical doctor by phone, the paramedics terminated their efforts to resuscitate Rob. Sheldon and Matt were both taken by ambulance to the Brantford hospital.”

Davies was 44 when he died.

Police sent the small bags of drugs found in his pocket to Health Canada for analysis. That “shows that the substance in the bag contained cocaine, fentanyl, phenacetin, and caffeine,” said the decision.

According to the judge, “there is little dispute as to the medical cause of Rob’s death. Dr. Daryl Mayers, a toxicologist, testified that Rob’s blood contained both fentanyl and cocaine at the time of his death. Dr. Tyler Hickey, the forensic pathologist who conducted the postmortem examination, testified that Rob’s death was caused by an overdose of a combination of fentanyl and cocaine.”

Grout knew Folk from previous drug transactions. The court heard he’d bought coke from Folk six times between May and June of 2020.

On the day Davies died, Folk offered Grout a deal on cocaine “to compensate for the poor-quality product from a prior sale.”

The Crown argued that by trafficking cocaine and fentanyl, the drug dealer “raised an objectively foreseeable risk of bodily harm.”

Folk countered “that the Crown is unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt” that he sold anything to Grout, or if he did, it couldn’t prove the nature of the substance. “Further, it is the defendant’s position that if I find that he sold a controlled substance to Matt, the Crown is unable to prove that the unlawful act of trafficking in that substance was a significant contributing cause of Rob’s death,” said the judge’s decision.

But according to Henderson, “the evidence is overwhelming with respect to the first two elements of the offence, namely that the defendant committed an unlawful act by intentionally trafficking in cocaine and/or fentanyl, and that the defendant’s unlawful act presented an objectively foreseeable risk of bodily harm.”

Grout “was a regular cocaine user at the time,” Henderson said. “I accept Matt’s evidence that he was using cocaine in recreational quantities approximately four or five times per week. I also accept Matt’s evidence that he used cocaine with his brother Rob when they got together to play golf or play cards approximately once or twice per month.”

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