Houston County woman’s overdose death leads to drug dealer’s conviction
When a 36-year-old Houston County woman died from an overdose in 2023, cell phone records helped investigators tie the drugs back to a Warner Robins man, who’s been sentenced to over 20 years in prison as a result, Houston County District Attorney Eric Edwards said Friday.
Clyde Laval Richardson Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of fentanyl last week. His girlfriend and “partner-in-crime,” as prosecutors put it, Marie Lynn Vasquez, also pleaded guilty to the same charge. While Richardson was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Vasquez awaits her own sentencing.
The Houston County woman died June 28, 2023, from the “combined effects of fentanyl, other fentanyl derivatives, heroin, methamphetamine, and other narcotics,” according to Edwards. He also said she had 24 micrograms of fentanyl per liter in her blood.
An investigation into her cell phone records pointed officers towards Richardson and Vasquez, who were messaging with the woman regarding previous drug transactions, including a timeline of what occurred the day before the woman died. The victim bought drugs from the defendants, proven by a CashApp receipt, according to Edwards.
‘Houston County ... riddled with drug overdoses’
While waiting for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to deliver medical documentations to Houston County law enforcement, they learned that Richardson and Vasquez were still selling narcotics in the county. The Warner Robins Police Department’s Narcotics Intelligence Unit made controlled buys of fentanyl from the defendants before they obtained a search warrant for their residence in the 300 block of Somerset Drive in the city, Edwards said.
Richardson, Vasquez and two others were found inside the residence with fentanyl that they packaged for sale, Edwards said.
Both of the defendants were indicted once the Houston County District Attorney’s Office received the autopsy and toxicology results. However, they couldn’t charge the defendants with homicide due to a “recent Georgia Supreme Court case on this issue — combined with this case occurring before the passage of … Aggravated Involuntary Manslaughter for Fentanyl Overdose Deaths (was made) effective July 1, 2025,” Edwards said.
“Houston County — as is the case in most of the Country — has been riddled with drug overdoses in the past three years,” Edwards said. “In 2023, there were 50 overdose deaths in Houston County, followed by 28 deaths in 2024, and 20 so far in 2025.”
The district attorney also said the 911 center in Houston County has received 739 overdose calls since the beginning of 2024. Law enforcement has seized 13,000 grams of fentanyl since 2023. If 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be deadly for the average person, “the amount of fentanyl seized in Houston County during this timeframe could kill up to 6.5 million people,” Edwards said.
“This case began with a woman found dead in her own bedroom, killed by a substance that was knowingly sold into our community by this defendant,” according to Edwards. “That is not an abstract harm — it is lethal conduct with a measurable body count.”