A guilty verdict has been handed down by a federal jury for a fentanyl dealer who benefitted from money siphoned off an elderly Villager.
Jermaine Lamar Harvard, 41, of Eustis, has been found guilty of distributing fentanyl resulting in death. Harvard faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 20 years, and up to life, in federal prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 15.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, in October 2019, Harvard distributed a quantity of fentanyl to a man who later died from ingesting the substance. An analysis of the victim’s cellphone revealed that Harvard had set up multiple drug transactions with the victim. These drugs led directly to the victim’s death. Harvard represented that the substance was heroin. A medical examiner subsequently determined that the victim had died of acute fentanyl toxicity.
Harvard has prior state convictions for the sale of cocaine in 2013.
While he was in jail awaiting trial, his girlfriend, 36-year-old Jessica Leigh Lewis, funneled money into his commissary account. Lewis funded the commissary deposits with a portion of more than $100,000 she stole from the bank account of her grandmother, a resident of the Historic Side of The Villages. While staying at her grandmother’s house, Lewis inflicted a skull fracture on her child and Lewis is now in prison. Lewis had been released from prison in 2017 after serving time on drug charges as well as a grand theft charge. Her grandmother allowed Lewis to move in with her upon her release from prison. However, she threw Lewis out after discovering the money missing from her bank account. Lewis is back in prison. She is due for release in 2030.