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Woman Charged With Fentanyl Overdose Death Of Her Escambia Jail Cellmate
July 12, 2022
A woman has been charged with the fentanyl overdose death of her cellmate at the Escambia County Jail.
Pamela Faye Schwarz, 40, is charged with first degree homicide, drug possession, smuggling contraband and destroying evidence.
According to Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons, Schwarz was remanded into custody from drug court and taken to the Escambia County Jail on May 25 and placed into a cell with a 52-year old female. There was no one else in the cell.
“Within minutes, Schwarz digs deep into her pants and retrieves a plastic bag,” Simmons said. Schwarz and the cellmate shared the powdered substance from the bag, he said. “Within just a few minutes it’s clear that the cellmate, the victim in this case, has an adverse reaction to whatever she just ingested.”
Instead of calling for help, the sheriff said Schwarz helped her cellmate into bed before flushing the rest of the drugs down the toilet.
Several hours later, the victim was found unresponsive. Her death was caused by a fentanyl overdose, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Schwarz remains in the Escambia County Jail without bond. Simmons did not release the victim’s name.
Comments
17 Responses to “Woman Charged With Fentanyl Overdose Death Of Her Escambia Jail Cellmate”
Also everyone gets booked you have to go through an x-ray body scanner so someone is not doing they’re job.
The guards should be charged too for not doing they’re jobs. They are supposed to strip search everyone when they get booked in. They have the easiest job in the world and can’t even do that. Just plain sorry !!
I think the guard’s ignored her like they do & blamed her.
He said↓
(Within just a few mins she had an adverse reaction)
(Several hour’s later she was found unresponsive)
Do your job & take responsibility .
It wasn’t all of the girl’s fault & y’all are covering yourselves & not searching people. They can get away with it but accuse whoever.you wanna wear the badge & not commit & do what’s right. SMH
A.G, We as deputies if your a good one, check on inmates that maybe a concern like waking them up if you feel there is a need. If she was like inmates I have dealt with, they sleep their time away. I don’t understand how they sleep so much sometimes unless they are detoxing. If the dep was doing their rounds and didn’t see anything unsusual besides “a sleeping” inmate then nudging the individual to wake them isn’t necessary. I had 30min checks and didn’t wake them every time I did a round. But like you, I don’t know all the facts of this situation. This was probably noticed at count if they are not required to be awake during meals to refuse or accept the meal.
Junkies, who are arrested, will need a fix, and will find places (clothes or body) to hide their drug. Hiding illicit drugs within the fibers of material is NOT a new way of smuggling in drugs. The victim’s family will now want “justice” which means money.
Found unresponsive? Found hours later? Where were the guards that were supposed to be checking on her? There are ways around the body scanner but there is no excuse for not doing your job!
From a former deputy in Escambia and a Central Florida jail, the inmates bring it in! Even with a strip search it can be concealed. Ever heard of “suit casing”? Well the females will use either front or back purse and sometimes both to conceal. I personally have been present for a strip search where we fortunately got 2 needles from an inmate. She was placed in a dry cell for strange behavior..This behavior you ask, it was a set of keys that she had in her rear purse! So yes people, they can conceal and we had a body scanner as well. General public have no clue as to what we see or deal with. The jail I reacently left had several OD’s because of suit cased heroin or fentynal.
Let’s see with all the current technologies that are here and available you mean to tell me they still get that crap in there !!! I don’t believe this peroid!!!! Somebody is responsible for this person having this drug in jail someone either gave it to her on the inside or someone did not do their job and continued not to do their job!!!! Highly unlikely she had it when she was arrested!!! Someone else is also a big part of this homicide!!!!!!
@beach boy you are right they use to strip search you….I belive once you go in that jail they give up there rights for the time being…STRIP SEARCH THEM im so sick if this fentanyl…….people it KILLS…..a friend of mine just lost her daughter because of that crap…people please please get help your life will be better off
With a glass no contact wall in-between..no contraband.
Like Century Prison…the mules are the corrupt officers..many have been caught smuggling contraband and prosecuted …
Ruins it for the good officers who do their jobs.
Drugs start from the extreme very top of our nation to the bottom.
It dont matter what your status is in society.
In years past…deputies “strip searched” everyone before being put in jail. I believe everyone understands what I’m talking about. It seems to me that prisoners have screamed about privacy and therefore no longer strip searched. HOWEVER….if you break the law (in this case concealed drugs), prisoners gave up that right of privacy once you broke the law, especially when arrested for drug related issues.
I’m fully aware of the highly lethal effects of a even a tiny speck of it, or the other drugs fentanyl is often mixed with. That’s only because I watch/listen to the news (NOT MSM), because I live a normal life. For many of these folks in jail for using drugs and living that kind of life, current events covered on the news is probably not top on their list. There’s plenty of news videos about the deaths, poisoning, overdoses and smuggling into the country of fentanyl out there. I don’t know if the inmates have access to a television, while incarcerated, but if they do, a compilation of those videos should be played on a loop. Then. It might sink in.
Regardless of everything you read, say or know……. when you are locked up; your safety is in the hands of the authority who locked you up…. Good or bad… Those who run the jail from intake to discharge are responsible for the inmates safety. Someone call Johnny Cochrane.
Maybe this will set a precedence. Drug dealer and distributors held liable for the deaths they cause.
Aren’t they supposed to be frisked prior to being jailed ????????
I’ve heard of “digging deep” for money in a cliché sense but never for drugs.
Sad right here. Before anyone jumps on the deputies in Intake know that these things can be concealed in several places that can/will/did go undetected. Maybe this will prompt a change in the way they search incoming inmates. Although it’s sad that a person lost their life in jail the ease that she ingested these narcotics shows(me) that it could have happened outside the jail facility. I agree and support the charges this young lady has received due to the outcome of this situation. I just don’t understand why these people are playing Russian roulette with this(and other) drug knowing full well it’s killing people..prayers to the deceased young ladies family