Man pleads guilty in Summerlin girl’s overdose death
A 32-year-old man who was facing a murder charge in a 13-year-old girl’s overdose death pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Tuesday.
Marcas Crowley is accused of taking and obtaining explicit photos of Daniella Young, an eighth grader at Sig Rogich Middle School, in exchange for the drugs that led to her fatal overdose in October.
After a grand jury in January declined to indict Crowley on a murder charge, prosecutors took an unusual move to file the same charge against Crowley in Las Vegas Justice Court.
Tuesday was scheduled as a preliminary hearing for Crowley, when Justice of the Peace Karen Bennett-Haron would determine if there was enough evidence for Crowley to stand trial on the murder charge.
Instead, Crowley waived his right to a preliminary hearing and pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted lewdness with a minor under 14, said defense attorney Craig Mueller.
Prosecutors Michael Schwartzer and Eckley Keach said Crowley agreed to a sentence of seven to 20 years in prison, although a judge will have final say on the length of time Crowley will spend behind bars.
The attorneys declined to comment following the hearing.
In the past two years, Clark County prosecutors have charged eight people with murder in connection with an overdose death, part of a growing national trend to pursue charges for drug dealers. None of the cases in Clark County has received a murder conviction, and Crowley is the third person to plea to a manslaughter charge.
Officials began pursuing the cases after an Overdose Response Team was formed in July 2020, made up of officials from the Metropolitan Police Department, Henderson Police Department, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Daniella’s mom, Sabrina Young, has previously told the Review-Journal her daughter was a “brilliant, caring, loving little girl who was murdered.” But during a brief interview following Tuesday’s hearing, Sabrina Young said she and Daniella’s father were satisfied with Crowley’s plea.
“We feel some justice was served,” Sabrina Young said.
Crowley sold cocaine, ecstasy and Percocet through Snapchat, police said. On Sept. 5, he messaged Daniella “who need percs,” and she replied: “not (right now) but I’ll (hit you up) when I get money,” according to his arrest report.
Over the next month, indecent photos and videos of Daniella were sent to Crowley over Snapchat in exchange for the drugs, police said. Daniella’s parents found her dead in her room on Oct. 13, next to pills police said were laced with fentanyl.
Officials believe Crowley was the last person to see Daniella alive after the two hung out at a park near her home the night of Oct. 12. When Crowley was arrested, he told police Daniella said she was 17.
Daniella’s death was ruled an accident due to fentanyl toxicity, the Clark County coroner’s office said. Other significant conditions of her death were recent cocaine and methamphetamine use.
According to a copy of Daniella’s autopsy report obtained by the Review-Journal, the girl had fentanyl, norfentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine in her system at “toxic/lethal levels.” A toxicology screen also resulted in “positive but not quantified” levels of a “probable illicit fentanyl metabolite,” according to the report.
She was also found to have THC and alcohol in her system, the report said.
Crowley initially was not charged with murder. In December, a grand jury indicted him on charges of lewdness with a child, possession of visual pornography, permitting a minor under 14 to produce pornography, child abuse and sale of a controlled substance.
Prosecutors then pursued a superseding indictment that would have added a murder charge. A grand jury in January declined to indict Crowley on the murder charge but modified the drug charge to include the sale of fentanyl.
Tuesday’s plea deal will account for the case Crowley was indicted on and the separate murder case, prosecutors said.
Bennett-Haron ordered Crowley to appear in court again on Thursday.