NORFOLK – A Virginia Beach man whose heroin led to multiple overdoses, including a death, was sentenced today in federal court to 35 years in prison.
Gregory Hatt, 29, dealt heroin to 23-year-old Monica Beaudry on her birthday in 2014, leading to her fatal overdose, according to court documents. He continued to sell drugs until police caught him seven months later, at which point his drugs were linked with other overdoses, including those of two sailors stationed on an aircraft carrier in Norfolk, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The sentencing concludes the latest high-profile case involving the opioid in Hampton Roads. Law enforcement say they are battling an epidemic, and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has promised to take on distributors to stymie it.
“Burying a child is every parent’s worst nightmare and my heart breaks every time I meet a family, like the Beaudrys, that has lost a child to these powerful drugs,” Herring said in the release.
Hatt pleaded guilty in February to several drug trafficking related charges.
