A recent arrest made hours after the overdose death of a Gulf Shores man was possible thanks to a new machine at the Baldwin County Coroner's Office.
Coroner Brian Pierce said the Randox MultiSTAT is used for rapid, preliminary drug screenings on decedents and has already led to the arrest of five or six suspects since June.
On Monday, Tyrell Shamon Johnson, 35, was charged with manslaughter, attempting to commit a controlled substance crime and possession of drug paraphernalia after Matthew Caddy was found dead of a suspected overdose. The Randox machine indicated fentanyl was present in Caddy's system, and agents with the Baldwin County Drug Task Force were able to act quickly and make the arrest.
The machine can detect traces of fentanyl, xylazine, cocaine, methamphetamines and others.
"It is an analyzer. We can test for 29 drugs," Pierce explained. "The unit can be set up to test blood, urine, or vitreous humor. We're set up for blood, which is kind of the standard for postmortem in toxicology."
Blood samples are also sent to the state lab for confirmation and a fully quantified toxicology report.
The machine cost the county around $60,000, but Pierce said it saves money and can save lives.
"Being able to triage the case rapidly after it occurs gives us opportunities," he said. "We don't have to wait 60 or 90 days for the state lab to come back with a report. So, that allows law enforcement to be able to follow up on their leads much quicker if we have a positive test."
"The other big advantage to this is we were using an outside lab to try to do this, and we could get it back in three or four days, but the cost of the test was $400," Pierce added. "Now we can do this test, get the results in an hour and it costs $40 a test."
Pierce said the results could be available within 33 minutes after preparing the machine for testing.
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