JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – A Johnson City man faces a second-degree murder charge for allegedly selling a pill containing fentanyl that led to a person’s overdose death last September — the same day police charged him with several drug offenses and a weapons charge.
A Johnson City Police Department (JCPD) news release states that police arrested 19-year-old Zachary Bobadilla on Friday in connection to a Sept. 9, 2022 death. The release said a Washington County Grand Jury indicted Bobadilla on the charge. The identity of the overdose victim was not released.
A grand jury presentment March 6 charged Bobadilla with one count of second degree murder and one count each of sale of schedule II and delivery of schedule II drugs, with the sale and delivery alleged to have occurred Sept. 8.
Bobadilla had already been charged with multiple drug and weapons violations the date of the overdose death after JCPD investigators conducted a “knock and talk” at an apartment on Mel Circle.
An affidavit for Bobadilla’s arrest from that same day stated Bobadilla admitted he was in possession of narcotics and pointed to a dresser. The affidavit said police recovered “a bottle of blue pills that investigators believed are Roxicodone,” along with suspected marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
Officers also found a loaded .45-caliber pistol in the dresser, the affidavit says, and recovered two rifles with loaded magazines in a safe after Bobadilla told them he had more weapons and provided them a key.
The affidavit made no mention of a potentially related death but said the drugs would be sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) lab for testing. Court records show the case was bound over to the grand jury Nov. 30. Charges included:
-Possession (Schedule II) with intent to sell or deliver
-Two counts of Simple Possession (Mushrooms and marijuana)
-Possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony
-Maintaining a dwelling in which narcotics are sold
The grand jury indicted Bobadilla on those five counts March 6. The JCPD release mentions another indictment on the second-degree murder charge.
“During the course of the investigation, it was determined Mr. Bobadilla was the person who sold a pill containing fentanyl, which led to the death of the decedent,” the release said.
According to the release, Bobadilla is currently being held in the Washington County Detention Center under a $150,000 bond.
Bobadilla is set to appear on April 3 in Washington County Criminal Court.
