A 23-year-old Knoxville man is accused of providing an 18-year-old man a fatal dose of heroin last summer.
The indictment is the latest in an effort by Knox County prosecutors to stiffen penalties for those alleged to be peddling drugs in fatal encounters.
A Knox County grand jury indicted Carey J. McCray Jr. on counts of reckless homicide and delivery of a controlled substance. He faced arraignment Wednesday, and was booked into jail last week, records show.
McCray is charged in the death of George Reagan Craddock, 18, who died June 15. Prosecutors allege McCray supplied Craddock with a fatal dose of heroin.
He's also accused of delivering the drug within a thousand feet of a child care agency, records show.
Reagan Craddock was a graduate last summer of Family Christian Academy of East Tennessee.
With opioid use and overdose on the rise in East Tennessee, Knox County prosecutors have stepped up seeking charges against dealers suspected of supplying the drug in fatal overdoses. More than 200 people have died of suspected overdose deaths this year in Knox County.
Overdoses are now a near daily occurrence in Knox and surrounding counties.
