Man who sold drugs charged with homicide after user’s overdose, SC cops say
Following a fatal drug overdose a Midlands man became the first person in South Carolina charged with fentanyl-induced homicide, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
Earlier this year, the South Carolina Legislature passed a law to address deaths from fentanyl, enabling law enforcement to charge suspects believed to have supplied fentanyl to someone who dies from using the drug to be charged with fentanyl-induced homicide, the sheriff’s office said Tuesday in a release.
Now, 35-year-old Sumter resident Thomas Justin Barwick has been arrested on that charge in addition to other crimes, according to the release.
“We are grateful for our legislature giving us this tool to use in the war on drugs in Sumter County,” Sheriff Anthony Dennis said in the release. “I believe we are the first agency to make such a charge under this new law. We look forward to working with prosecutors as we seek justice.”
The charge was filed following the death of 62-year-old William Karl Joseph Myers, who the sheriff’s office said died as a direct result of ingesting drugs obtained from Barwick.
Information about when Myers died was not available, but Barwick was arrested Dec. 3 following a search by the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit, according to the release. Barwick was charged with fentanyl-induced homicide Tuesday, Sumter County court records show.
From the same arrest, the Sumter resident was previously charged with manufacturing, distribution, possession of cocaine base, trafficking fentanyl (4 grams or more but less than 14 grams), manufacturing, distribution, possession of drugs in Schedule I, LSD, and Schedule II, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, sale or delivery of pistol/possession by certain person unlawful/stolen pistol, possession/conceal/sell/dispose of stolen vehicle (value $2,000 or less) and possession of other controlled substances in Schedules I-V, the sheriff’s office said.
Bond was set at $137,000 on those combined charges, and has not been posted, according to court records. No bond has been set for the fentanyl-induced homicide charge, and Barwick is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 23, 2026, judicial records show.
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