Faribault Man Charged With Murder in Drug Overdose Case

The Rice County Attorney's Office has filed a felony third degree murder charge against a 28 year old Faribault man for selling drugs that caused the death of another Faribault man in June.  Anthony Micheal Fugalli was charged Monday in Rice County District Court in alleged connection with the death of 38 year old Jason Ervin Madow of Faribault.

According to the Criminal Complaint the maximum sentence Fugalli would be facing is 25 years in prison, a $40,000 fine or both.  The complaint says on or about June 19, 2018 Frugalli "did without intent cause death, proximately cause the death of Jason Ervin Madow by directly or indirectly, unlawfully selling or delivering or distributing heroin and fentanyl, a schedule I or II controlled substance."

The Criminal Complaint says, "On June 19th, 2018 at 11:52 a.m. Faribault Police, Fire and EMS were dispatched to a medical call at 130 9th Avenue Southwest in Faribault.  Upon arrival they found Madow lying on the floor.  After Narcan and other life saving efforts failed Madow was pronounced dead at the scene. A 1cc hypodermic needle was located on the floor next to Madow."  A reporting party told officers Madow may have overdosed on heroin.

The "RP stated Madow lived there and offered the following sequence of events, the two of them stayed up until 5:00 a.m. an alarm went off at 6:45 a.m. and Madow got the kids ready and off to school.  RP fell back asleep.  After RP got up she saw Madow's truck in the driveway and found him unresponsive in the bathroom and called 911."

RP stated, "she thought Madow looked heroin high and said she knew. he got it from this Tony guy.  RP said she had never seen Tony but believed he was a black dude that sells a lot of heroin and Madow had met him through a friend,

Madow's body was transported to the medical examiner for autopsy.  "He had concentrations of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine in his blood.  The medical examiner concluded Madow died of mixed toxicity from the three drugs, though it was not possible to select one of the three as the cause of death."

"Anthony Michael Fugalli was found to have exchanged text messages with Madow the two days before Madow died.  Madow stated he was a friend of a friend and wanted to buy heroin.  The two agreed to meet near Alexander Park in Faribault where Madow would pay $50.  Madow sent a text message to Fugalli at 6:48 p.m. saying he was in a white Dodge at the end of the back parking lot."  The Criminal Complaint says, "Madow's phone also indicated he had called Fugalli's phone four times on June 18."

"Fugalli was arrested as part of another investigation and following Miranda, admitted that he met a guy through a friend who drove a white truck at Alexander Park on June 18th and sold him $50 worth of heroin.  Fugalli was shown a photo of Madow and agreed he was the guy he sold heroin to on June 18.

During his interview with authorities the Criminal Complaint alleges, "Fugalli stated that he believed the heroin he was selling was cut with Fentanyl and he believe it to be dangerous.  Fugalli said he warned his customers that the heroin was strong and they should be careful not to do too much of it."

"Fugalli is not black but was associated with another heroin dealer named Tony who is black, Fugalli had taken over much of that dealer's network when that Tony was taken into custody."