United States Drug Enforcement Administration

ROCHESTER, NY – U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross and Timothy Foley, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division, announced that Shermart D. Merriwether, 26, of Rochester, NY, who was convicted of distribution of fentanyl, was sentenced to serve 180 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett A. Harvey, who handled the case, stated that Merriwether was part of a group of individuals who ran a drug house at 192 Weaver Street in the City of Rochester. Merewether and others sold quantities of fentanyl from the house in 2018 and 2019. Merriwether admitted to selling a quantity of fentanyl to a 24-year-old female who suffered a non-fatal overdose at a gas station on East Ridge Road in Irondequoit, NY. The victim ingested the fentanyl and then lost consciousness while at a pump at the gas station. Irondequoit Ambulance personnel responded and gave the victim Narcan, after which she regained consciousness. Merriwether admitted that, if emergency personnel had not administered Narcan to the victim, there was a substantial risk that she would have died from fentanyl toxicity.

The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the DEA Buffalo District Office; the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office; and the Rochester Police Department.