Nearly two years after fentanyl-laced drugs left one man dead and three others hospitalized in Grafton, a Saukville woman who authorities say sold them the drugs at a state lawmaker’s tavern has been charged.
Nick Hamilton, 28, and three friends were attending a birthday party at the Railroad Station bar, owned by Republican Rep. Rob Brooks, on May 5, 2023, when a regular at the bar sold Hamilton cocaine laced with fentanyl, according to Grafton police reports from the time. Hamilton overdosed that night and died in the hospital on May 8.
That regular who allegedly sold him the drugs has now been identified, arrested and charged, according to a criminal complaint filed April 11 in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.
Amber Williams, 40, was charged with one count of first-degree reckless homicide. The felony charge carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Williams was arrested after turning herself in on April 13, Joe Hamilton, Nick’s father, said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel.
‘Everyone who used the drug became unresponsive,’ a witness told law enforcement
According to the criminal complaint:
Grafton police responded to a call from a residence in Grafton on May 6, 2023. They found one person barely lucid enough to call for police and three people unresponsive, including a man passed out in the bathroom, a woman with severe facial injuries from a dog attack and another man, later identified as Nick Hamilton, laying on a couch.
Hamilton was the only one not breathing and without a pulse. Officers administered Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse opioid overdoses, and attempted other life-saving measures but were not successful. Hamilton was taken to the Aurora Medical Center Grafton and was placed on a ventilator. He died May 8.
A white powdery substance found on a kitchen plate at the residence tested positive for fentanyl, and forensic testing confirmed the presence of fentanyl in Hamilton’s system. Milwaukee County Chief Medical Examiner Wieslawa Tlomak determined the synthetic opioid was a substantial factor in his death.
Detectives later interviewed several witnesses who had been with Hamilton earlier that night at the Railroad Station bar in Saukville. One of them told investigators Hamilton had approached Williams at the bar and obtained two plastic bags of what was believed to be cocaine.
The person who called police at the Grafton residence said she and Hamilton had used the substance in the first bag in his car shortly after purchasing it. However, after using the contents of the second bag later at the Grafton residence, she immediately felt something was wrong. Soon after, everyone who used the drug became unresponsive.
Joe Hamilton attended Williams’ initial appearance in court April 14, where Judge Steven Cain set cash bond at $100,000.
The Wisconsin statute that Williams is charged under allows for homicide charges in cases where someone dies as a result of ingesting drugs provided by another person.
Nick’s family hopes to ‘prevent this from happening to someone else’s child’
Nick’s death sent shockwaves through the Grafton community and devastated his family, Joe Hamilton said.
Around three month after Nick’s death, his family held a celebration of life in his honor at the Bridge Inn in Grafton, raising money that was dispersed between funds for his three children and the Grafton School District’s Special Education program. Joe said the family received an outpouring of support from their community at the event and over the past two years.
After 23 months, news of development in Nick’s case was bittersweet, Joe said. On one hand, he’s waited two years for charges to be filed in his son’s death. On the other, it brings back the pain of Nick’s death.
Joe said everyone in his immediate family understands their son or sibling was no angel. “He made a mistake with friends, and his choices cost him his life,” Joe said. “But that’s my son. We want justice for Nick, but also to prevent this from happening to someone else’s child.”
Joe said the family has been persistent in seeking answers and accountability for Nick’s death. They’ve assisted law enforcement with the case, even providing some tips from their own investigating and from other community members helping.
“This could happen to anybody, and it does happen to anybody,” Joe said.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, is highly addictive and can be lethal in doses as little as 2 milligrams, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Experts have attributed a national surge in overdose deaths in recent years to fentanyl being laced into many illicit drugs, resulting in a devastating opioid epidemic.
According to Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, the state saw more than 1,400 opioid overdose deaths in 2022, up 73% since 2018 and over 13 times the total number of deaths in 2000.
Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Saukville woman charged in connection with overdose death in Grafton
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