Guilty Plea in Fatal Fentanyl Case of Two D.C. Gay Men
Jevaughn Mark has pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl-laced drugs, including a deadly batch linked to the deaths of two gay D.C. men.
A Washington resident accepted a plea deal by admitting to conspiring to distribute large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine throughout the D.C. metropolitan area, part of which involved selling a deadly batch of fentanyl that resulted in the deaths of two gay men.
On March 14, while appearing before U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, Jevaughn “Ledo” Mark pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and 500 grams or more of cocaine, as well as to a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
The 33-year-old was initially charged with eight counts of unlawful distribution of fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin and distributing 40 grams or more of fentanyl between January 10, 2024 and March 13, 2024.
According to prosecutors, Mark allegedly distributed the narcotics on six different occasions to undercover Drug Enforcement Agency and Metropolitan Police Department officers who were part of a joint anti-drug task force.
In each instance, Mark supplied the undercover officers — who had requested “Special K,” or ketamine, with a mixture of fentanyl and other substances, including heroin.
More than 2 milligrams of fentanyl can constitute a lethal dose, resulting in respiratory failure and potentially death.
After obtaining an indictment against Mark, law enforcement personnel executed a search warrant at his primary residence, recovering two firearms, cocaine, fentanyl, about $38,000 in cash, body armor vests, and drug trafficking paraphernalia.
Law enforcement later executed a second warrant at a separate residence tied to Mark, where they discovered his brother, 30-year-old Angelo Mark. From Angelo Mark’s bedroom, officers recovered seven firearms, 900 rounds of ammunition, dozens of pills, cocaine, fentanyl, drug trafficking paraphernalia, and about $5,000 in cash.
On April 9, 2024, both brothers were charged in a superseding 17-count indictment alleging that they participated in a larger conspiracy, along with other yet-to-be-named individuals, to distribute large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine throughout the D.C. area between January 2021 and March 2024.
Angelo Mark has not accepted a plea deal and is currently awaiting trial.
On June 13, 2024, Jevaughn Mark was charged in a second superseding indictment in connection with the sale of fentanyl and cocaine under the guise of selling “ketamine” on December 26, 2023. That deadly concoction resulted in the deaths of two gay men, Brandon Román and Robert Barletta, who were found unresponsive on the following day at a Northwest D.C. residence.
Román was declared dead at the scene, and Barletta was transported to Washington Hospital Center, where he died two days later.
As part of his guilty plea, Mark admitted to selling the fentanyl-laced drug concoction to one of the men, who shared it with the other victim.
Both men’s deaths were attributed to a combination of MDMA, or ecstasy, mixed with cocaine, fentanyl, and cocaethylene, a substance formed within the human body after someone consumes both cocaine and alcohol.
Román’s autopsy also showed traces of ketamine and xylazine, or “tranq,” a non-opioid tranquilizer approved for veterinary use but not for humans, which has also been mixed with other narcotics in a number of drug-related overdoses.
Both Román, a prominent attorney, and Barletta, a historic preservation expert and home renovation business owner, were well known in the D.C. LGBTQ community and among the D.C. nightlife community.
Following the men’s deaths, several D.C. bars began hosting training or educational sessions about fentanyl, the danger of opioid-related poisonings, precautions for avoiding overdoses — including the use of testing strips that an detect whether substances are laced with fentanyl — and how to respond to a suspected overdose, including the use of naloxone, a lifesaving nasal spray that counteracts opioid overdoses, also known as Narcan.
Typically, a person convicted of conspiring to distribute a controlled substance can result in a sentence of anywhere from five to 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.
Mark, who remains held in custody without bond, is scheduled to appear in court on June 13 for sentencing.
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