Man convicted in fentanyl-blowing case wants verdict thrown out

LACONIA — An Alton man convicted of criminal recklessness for blowing powdered fentanyl in the presence of a police officer says the judge should set aside his guilty verdict, arguing no evidence was introduced during the trial to support the prosecution’s assertion that fentanyl is a deadly weapon.

A jury found Eric Weil, 50, of 6 Gilmans Corner Road, in Alton, guilty on Sept. 13, of reckless conduct. Weil was accused of blowing a powdered substance — later analyzed to be fentanyl — in the direction of Alton police Officer Jameson Fellows who, along with two other officers, had gone to Weil’s home to remove a house guest who had been found using drugs. The prosecution had argued that purposely exposing someone to the dust makes fentanyl, in essence, a deadly weapon.

But the motion asking the judge to issue an order of acquittal or to set aside the verdict, Weil’s attorney Harry Starbranch, states no evidence was introduced at the trial showing that the opioid drug fentanyl “was capable of producing death or serious bodily injury.”

Prior to the motion being filed in Belknap Superior Court Tuesday Weil had been scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.

Assistant Belknap County Attorney Adam Woods, who prosecuted the case, said Thursday the County Attorney’s Office “vehemently objects” to the arguments made in the motion, and would soon be filing its own motion in support of its position that the verdict should be upheld.

In closing arguments at the trial, Woods told the jury what Weil did put Fellows in danger of death or serious injury, given that fentanyl is deadly, and further that Weil knew the danger that drugs pose.

Starbranch’s motion argues during the trial there was no evidence that Fellows had ingested any fentanyl.

“The mere fact that the (fentanyl) could cause serious bodily injury or death is insufficient to prove it constitutes a deadly weapon,” the motion states.

The motion notes that the state law which lists the different types of deadly weapons makes no mention of fentanyl.

The motion further maintains that the prosecution cannot show that Weil acted recklessly when he did not himself know what the power was. Testifying in his own defense at trial Weil said he thought the powered substance might be heroin or cocaine.

Starbranch states since Fellows suffered no significant injury or lasting symptoms and that others on the scene suffered no ill effects supports the argument that the “powder is not capable of producing death or serious bodily injury in the manner (it was) used.”