HOUSTON – A former Rice football player was arrested in connection with the death of another player Blaine Padgett, who died of an opioid overdose in March.
According to the Houston Police Department, Stuart “Mooch” Mouchantaf, of Katy, was arrested Thursday and charged with delivery of a controlled substance causing death, which carries a penalty of five to 99 years or life in prison. Mouchantaf played for Rice from 2012 to 2013 before redshirting in 2014.
According to the Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, Mouchantaf sold Padgett pills with an opioid 10,000 times more powerful than morphine.
“Users better beware that even a spec of this drug can kill you,” Ogg said. “And dealers, you are on notice that if your product kills people, you will be prosecuted for causing a death, not just dealing drugs.”
Padgett, 21, was found dead in his bedroom by fellow players after failing to show up for practice in March. Padgett was a defensive end on the university's football team. The 21-year-old was a junior at the school, according to Rice's website.
Medical examiners confirmed in June that he died of a drug overdose.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Science said Padgett died due to toxic effects of carfentanil in his system. Carfentanil is a synthetic version of fentanyl.
HPD investigators determined that Padgett bought pills from Mouchantaf that Padgett believed were Hydrocodone, but actually contained carfentanil, according to court papers filed by prosecutors.
"I want to commend our homicide investigators and other personnel in our department who identified and arrested a suspect whose actions in selling this poison contributed to Blain Padgett's death ... a young man who had such a bright future ahead of him,” HPD Chief Art Acevedo said.
Carfentanil was originally made as an elephant tranquilizer and a lethal amount is so miniscule that it is invisible to the human eye.
“What the public, parents and teenagers need to understand, is that it is increasingly difficult to buy pharmaceutical-grade pills on the streets,” Assistant District Attorney Paul Fortenberry, who is chief of the Major Narcotics Division, said. “The purchaser of these pills assumes they are legitimate, but they are actually tricked with potentially deadly consequences.”
