Tyson Richardson, an Army recruit, spent the holidays in Oregon with pals, hoping to have a good time.
He took some multicolored pills laced with fentanyl a few days prior to his scheduled return to boot camp in Georgia.
At a residence in Lake Oswego, Richardson lay unconscious while others partied in another room.
They believed Richardson had consumed too much alcohol, so when they found him, they threw him in a shower. Early on December 30, 2022, the 19-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. He died from fentanyl intoxication, according to an autopsy.
Clifford Richardson, the father of the deceased, told a judge during the sentencing of the man who provided the deadly tablets on Wednesday that it was an absolute agony to see his son in his coffin, clothed in his military uniform.
He claimed that the outfit, which ought to have represented his goals and hopes, suddenly felt like a mean joke.
In 2022, 1,383 people in Oregon lost their lives to drug overdoses, including Tyson Richardson. In 2023, the figure rose to a record in the state as 1,833 persons died from overdoses. The 2024 figures have not yet been made public by the state.
Michael D. Parris, a 23-year-old drug dealer, entered a guilty plea to fentanyl distribution.
The defense attorney suggested a sentence of less than three years, while the prosecutor suggested a roughly six-year term for Parris. The father advocated for a minimum 10-year sentence.
Tyson’s life was important. Clifford Richardson, 48, stated that his future was important. He claimed that a shorter statement would not adequately convey the reality.
No sentence, according to U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman, could make up for the father’s loss.
Mosman stated that there would be no closure regardless of the number I choose. The following day doesn’t feel any better, and nothing feels different.
HEART-FILLED
According to his father, Tyson Richardson, who was born in Oregon City, loved baseball.
Clifford Richardson claimed that one of his biggest pleasures in life was coaching his son. He remembered the ecstatic expression on Tyson’s face when he touched home plate following a grand slam in a state championship in 2018.
He related to the judge how, in another game, his son was trying to catch a pop fly when the sun obscured his vision and the ball struck him directly on the nose.
He wouldn’t get off the field. According to Clifford Richardson, he wanted to continue playing. The youngster returned to the field after visiting urgent care; according to his father, he was unwavering, resolute, and full of heart.
According to his father, Tyson Richardson attended Gladstone High School but did not complete his studies, earning his high equivalency diploma in 2022.
Motivated by an uncle, he made the decision to enlist in the Army with the goal of becoming a cavalry scout, specializing in reconnaissance and obtaining intelligence on enemy activity, weapons, and positions.
According to Clifford Richardson, he desired to serve his country and be a part of something bigger than himself.
HI HARSH
According to a police inquiry, Tyson Richardson paid $30 to $40 for 12 multicolored pills from Parris the day before he passed away.
They used Snapchat to arrange the cocaine purchase. Investigators claim that Tyson Richardson sent a message to a person using the handle PaySosa16.
According to court documents, the two arranged to meet in order to make a deal for $100 worth of fake oxycodone pills and a gram of cocaine, or “snow.”
The interaction happened in a parking lot owned by Fred Meyer.
Investigators discovered that the Snapchat account was linked to a phone number registered to Parris and used in online advertisements for sex trafficking.
Tyson Richardson, 19, was discovered dead on December 30, 2022, with this bag of six multicolored fentanyl tablets in his wallet. After buying 12 drugs the day before in a Snapchat trade, he was found comatose on a bed in a Lake Oswego residence that morning.United States Attorney’s Office
About a month later, on January 31, 2023, Parris was arrested after he traveled to a location in Clackamas County to arrange a meeting between a potential sex customer who was actually an undercover police officer and a woman in his car, according to the police.
From the vehicle, investigators found a loaded 9mm handgun with an extended magazine and a transparent plastic bag that held roughly 100 fentanyl pills.
As stated by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassady Adams, Parris first said he was unfamiliar with Tyson Richardson.
Parris attributed his poor recollection from his own drug use to the fact that, when given a description of the 19-year-old, he remembered Tyson Richardson but did not remember providing him narcotics.
According to Adams, Parris acknowledged having additional drug users and claimed to have received some improperly pressed, rainbow-colored fentanyl pills from his source, which resembled the six pills discovered in a small bag in Tyson Richardson’s wallet.
Other customers had complained that the pills were quite harsh, Adams said, so Parris told police he got into a fight with his supplier.
I opened my eyes.
Adams claimed that Parris should be sentenced to five years and eleven months since he was neither a cartel member nor a cartel dispatcher.
Although Parris was aware that he was peddling poison, she pointed out that he had a history of addiction and that the matter had been resolved quickly.
Adams acknowledged that this was a tragedy and expressed her sincere condolences to Richardson’s family for their loss.
Conor Huseby, the defense attorney, claimed that Parris was homeless when he sold Tyson Richardson the pills. He advocated for a two-year, nine-month term.
Following a car accident in 2021 that broke his pelvis and vertebrae, Huseby said that Parris had turned into a daily user of fentanyl. After leaving the hospital, he started living with other fentanyl users and sold drugs to fund his habit, according to the attorney.
Huseby said that he wasn’t a dealer motivated by profit.
Parris’ early years also played a role in his addiction; according to Huseby, he started using marijuana and alcohol at the age of ten and was reared by parents who used drugs in front of him.
Parris then read from a written statement to the Richardson family.
He remarked, “Please accept my sincere apologies for my weakness and incapacity to stop the addiction that left me and so many others living in an illogical state.” There is no moral compass, no sense of good or evil, and no empathy for anything other than the addiction in that illogical mindset.
Parris told the judge that going to jail on other state charges he faced after Tyson Richardson s death, and while awaiting sentencing in the federal case saved his life and opened my eyes. He was found guilty last year of operating a car without permission and driving while suspended.
From the bottom of my heart I most sincerely apologize for facilitating the drugs that took Tyson away from you all, he told Richardson s family and friends. The sentence was attended by Tyler Richardson’s father, stepmother, and perhaps twenty family friends.
“The rage I feel is deep, relentless and all-consuming at times,” Clifford Richardson said, in the wake of his 19-year-old son’s death. “It’s a rage, not just for me, but for everyone who loved Tyson.” He had urged a 10-year prison term for the man who sold his son fentanyl pills.Staff Member Maxine Bernstein
TYSON IS IMPORTANT
Clifford Richardson’s speech before the court was welcomed, the judge said.
What he must try to do, Mosman told the father, is to try to rank the cases before him to determine where they fit along a spectrum of moral culpability.
He also can only sentence someone for the crime they ve pleaded guilty to and not for a more serious offense.
Mosman said he had to consider Parris harsh upbringing and that Parris was a low-level addict selling drugs to feed his habit and not a callous … psychopathic criminal.
Tyson does matter to the criminal justice system and so does the victim s family, Mosman said. But the criminal justice system is incapable of providing what the victim s family most needs.
He adopted the prosecutor s recommended sentence of five years and 11 months.
At that, Clifford Richardson, wearing a black T-shirt reading Fentanyl is TERRORISM, stood up and walked out of the courtroom.
He left before the judge was done.
— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, [email protected], follow her on X@maxoregonian, or onLinkedIn.
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