When he was originally charged for the overdose death of Shaun Callahan, Nysean Dwight Giddens faced a count of manslaughter–bad enough, as he could have faced up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
Last week, however–a matter of weeks before his scheduled trial in July–a Flagler County grand jury indicted Giddens on a first-degree murder charge, a capital felony.
The State Attorney’s office could choose to seek the death penalty. It will almost certainly not do so. It’s never done so in any overdose-death cases in the Seventh Judicial Circuit, nor has any state attorney done so in such cases anywhere in Florida. The consequences of the indictment are still grim for Giddens, who could face life in prison if convicted.
He had been offered a plea, and so far had chosen not to take it. The indictment may compel him to give a plea another look. The state may still offer plea terms that could go as low as manslaughter despite the indictment. Since Giddens is not a repeat offender, his punishment could also be limited to 15 years.
For example, Joseph Carroll, a 44-year-old former resident of Shady Lane in Palm Coast, had similarly been indicted on a capital felony murder charge in the overdose death of Michael Burnett, 31, in June 2018. He pleaded down to manslaughter, and in January was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with credit for time served and eligibility for gain time, or early release, after serving 85 percent of his sentence.
The same month, Jevante Hamilton was sentenced to 40 years, 30 of those on a manslaughter charge in the overdose death of Timothy Davidson of Palm Coast a year earlier. Hamilton had been indicted on a first-degree murder charge. He went to trial and was convicted on a the lesser charge of manslaughter. (An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that he had pleaded down to manslaughter.)
Why the sentencing disparity with Carroll? Because Hamilton was a so-called prison-releasee reoffender. The conviction was his third on a felony within 10 years. Under Florida law, that doubled his penalty. He would have faced a 30-year sentence but for the judge’s decision to tack on a 10-year consecutive sentence for a mere probation violation in Volusia County. (He’s appealing.)
Giddens is not a re-offender, though he does face other felony charges, including trafficking a controlled substance, a second degree felony, which would add to his potential sentence if he doesn’t plead out. All of which suggests that the surprise would be only if he chooses not to plead out before his July 17 trial before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins.
Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Dunton is prosecuting the case. Nicole Jordan-Dixon is defending Giddens. The state’s evidence is not hazy. Detectives had taken possession of Callahan’s phone after Callahan died and called Giddens, posing as Callahan, to set up another drug transaction, ostensibly for cocaine. Giddens showed up, thinking it was Callahan texting him. Detectives also had the texts between Callahan and Giddens that preceded the fatal sale to Callahan, who died on Sept. 13, 2020 on Utrillo Place in Palm Coast.
Callahan’s girlfriend called 911 to report him unresponsive. The couple had a child in common and was supposed to meet that morning so Callahan, who lived with his parents, would pick up the child and his girlfriend could go to work at Publix. He never showed up. Previously, “Shaun seemed healthy and happy and was making plans for his future,” according to what his mother told detectives. His girlfriend was aware of his cocaine use, but he was “trying to stop.”
Giddens and Callahan texted good-naturedly in the set-up of the transaction the night of Sept. 12, texting in their own slang: “can’t get that chunk anymore huh everybody running out of what,” Callahan had texted. “Yea bro that chunk high and hard yo find but saving my money up top deal with my brother ppl… I need big money to go see him lol.”
That was the end of the exchange. After detectives took possession of Callahan’s phone, they set up a buy in the parking lot of the Tractor Supply store on belle Terre Boulevard, and Giddens showed up. He “admitted to selling narcotics to Shaun the night before,” according to his arrest report, leaving the drugs in Callahan’s mailbox. He also had a small amount of cocaine hidden under his scrotum.
When detectives tested the cocaine, they found it laced with fentanyl, a deadly drug even in small proportions. The Medical Examiner listed the cause of death as Fentanyl Toxicity, according to Giddens’s arrest report.
Giddens told detectives he had no idea he was selling cocaine laced with fentanyl. “I didn’t know man,” he told detectives, as he told them that he thought his life was over.
Atwp says
Black men please stay out of trouble. Don’t become pawns for this system. Please stay out of trouble, you all should know how the system work, most time it dosent work in your favor. You do wrong you should be punished.
The Geode says
LOL. so… it’s the “system’s” fault, huh? Whatever it takes to skirt blame and responsibility is the path easily traveled by perpetual victims…
Florida Girl says
I do not believe for one minute that he did NOT know that cocaine was cut with Fentanyl. This family has been in this area their entire lives. This is a family run business starting with his parents. I thought when his dad went to prison, his boys’ lives might change its course. How tragic that was not the case. The cycle was not broken. There was no reform found in the prison systems. Now another addict dies, and he will never have the chance again to turn their lives around for the betterment of self. And leaving another baby left without a father, and a mother left without a partner in the parental unit. Parents left to wonder where they went wrong, and how they could have changed this.
The addict violently offends self. The dealers and traffickers violently hurt and kill others. If they are going to lock Nysean up for this, they better dig deeper because he is not alone. FCSO has only scratched the surface in Espanola.
Common sense says
While I agree you shouldn’t sell drugs and taught values from family are an issue. I’d bet this guy didn’t put a gun to the persons head that od’d. That addict had plenty of time to change their life around, how many bags of dope does the person need to buy before they get that “second chance”. Bet my life it wasn’t the first cocaine they have ever done. Giving someone a murder charge for selling drugs to a willing participant in the drugs is insane and not an effective use of our system. Let’s extrapolate this thought process. Honda. The car dealer. Sells a car that goes well over an posted speed limit in the state of Florida. Should there salesman at the dealership be brought up on murder charges when some snacks a tree doing 110mph. Circle k sells cigarettes. Should they be brought up on murder charges when someone dies. I have little sympathy for either party quite frankly. But this seems like an attempt to pass blame for a users actions and results. Lock the guy up for five years or whatever. But murder it’s laughable.
Florida Girl says
Welp, above and beyond the horrible comparison you offer. Honda is not a drug dealer, nor is the car being sold an illegal substance. AND the Circle K is also not roaming around the country purchasing drugs from a criminal entity to illegally smuggle across state lines, to push across their counter to unsuspecting customers who may or may not die when ingesting it. Maybe Nysean should have put a warning label on his sac of cocaine, “may be mixed with Fentanyl?” I’m sure the murder charge is not laughable to the parents left behind, or his child, or the child’s mother. What is laughable is you, and your thought process in defending a man who loaned a leg in the journey of killing someone. What is ironic is people JUST like you who think it will never happen to them, and then it does. People like Nysean are nothing more than a predator. He preys on people who are reliant on a chemical solution to their Spiritual disease. He banks on people JUST like that. The only person that would associate with Nysean are other drug dealers and other addicts. It’s a violent scene from beginning to end. Of course, I do not expect you or anyone like you to understand this. Thank God the powers that be are not the likes of you.