Man guilty of homicide for fentanyl death in Grafton

A 47-year-old drug dealer from Milwaukee was convicted in Ozaukee County Circuit Court Tuesday of first-degree reckless homicide for selling fentanyl to a Grafton man who overdosed on the drug and died last year. 

On Sept. 30, the day his trial was to begin, Tavares D. Kimbrough pleaded no contest to the homicide charge as well as one count of delivering fentanyl.

Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain accepted his pleas and found him guilty.

Three counts of delivering cocaine were dismissed as part of a plea agreement but read into the record, which means Cain can consider them when sentencing Kimbrough, which is scheduled for Oct. 1.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Assistant District Attorney Antonella Aleman-Zientek recommended Kimbrough be sentenced to 12 years in prison followed by six years of extended supervision.

The investigation that led to Kimbrough’s arrest began when officers were called to an apartment complex on Fourth Avenue in Grafton at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 22, and found a man in the driver’s seat of a gray Audi who was not breathing. 

Officer Chris Cheek, however, noticed the man was still warm, so he pulled him from the car onto the pavement of the parking lot and began performing chest compressions. A Grafton ambulance crew arrived a short time later and was able to restore the man’s heartbeat. He was taken to Aurora Medical Center in Grafton but later died, according to a criminal complaint, which does not identify the victim.

The man’s roommate, who had found him in the car and called 911, told officers that at about 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, the victim called “T,” who authorities later identified as Kimbrough, to arrange the purchase of $100 worth of cocaine. 

The man said he went with the victim to a McDonald’s on West Fond du Lac Avenue in Milwaukee, where they met Kimbrough and paid him $100 for cocaine, the complaint states.

Kimbrough then showed them a folded piece of paper containing a brown, sponge-like substance, saying, “This is what else I got,” and described it as heroin, according to the complaint.

The man said he and the victim returned to their apartment at 4 or 5 p.m., split the cocaine and used all of it. The man said he went to an alcohol and drug abuse meeting at 7 p.m., then returned home and watched videos with the victim. He said he went to bed just before 9 p.m.

The man said he woke up at 5 a.m. on May 22 but fell back asleep. At 8 a.m., he heard keys jingling and thought his roommate was leaving for work.

But at 10 a.m., the man saw his roommate’s car was still in the parking lot and assumed he had gotten a ride to work. He took the garbage out at noon and saw his roommate in his car. He said he tapped on the car window, but his roommate didn’t respond. The man said he saw that his roommate was breathing, so he thought he was sleeping and didn’t want to anger him by waking him up.

The man said he ran errands with his mother and returned to the apartment complex at about 3 p.m., which is when he noticed his roommate was still in his car. His eyes were rolled back in his head, his skin was pale and he was stiff, according to the complaint. 

That is when the man called 911.

While officers were investigating the overdose, Cheek noticed that a camera with front and rear-facing lenses was mounted in the victim’s car and the key was in the ignition and turned to the on position. 

A video that was recorded the morning of May 22 shows the victim passed out in the driver’s seat and laboring to breathe. The video stopped recording when the car’s battery died. 

A recording from 4:24 p.m. the previous day shows the victim and his roommate driving on Capitol Drive in Milwaukee near where the roommate said they bought cocaine. At 4:49 p.m., the video shows they were driving back to Grafton.

But a recording at 12:25 a.m. May 22 shows the victim driving near Capitol Drive and Teutonia Avenue, suggesting that he returned to Milwaukee alone.

At 1 a.m., the video shows the victim driving through Grafton, and he appeared to be under the influence of drugs, according to the complaint. 

The video shows him wearing the same clothes as when he was found unresponsive later that day.

An autopsy concluded that the man died of acute mixed drug toxicity from fentanyl and fluorofentanyl, a modified form of fentanyl. There was also evidence of recent cocaine use.

The victim’s roommate told authorities he used to work with “T,” who told him he sells cocaine and “anything you need,” the complaint states. The man said he gave “T’s” phone number to the victim.

The victim’s phone records show he contacted that number shortly after midnight on May 22.

The man identified “T” as Kimbrough by looking at a photo array, according to the complaint. 

Using an undercover officer and confidential informant, authorities set up three drug purchases from Kimbrough at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Highland Drive in Grafton.

During each of the first two purchases in June 2024, the informant paid Kimbrough $250 for cocaine, the complaint sates.

Before the third purchase in July, the informant called Kimbrough to order cocaine and heroin. Kimbrough replied, “I got everything. Whatever you want,” according to the complaint.

The informant bought two packets from Kimbrough, one that contained cocaine and another that contained a brown substance believed to be heroin, which according to a test contained fentanyl, the complaint states. 

The informant set up a fourth purchase, but this time authorities were waiting for Kimbrough on I-43 near the Highway 60 exit in Grafton. Kimbrough pulled over at the Gateway Mobil Gas Station near the freeway exit and was arrested.

When questioned by authorities, Kimbrough said he had sold cocaine as well as heroin mixed with fentanyl to the victim and his roommate, according to the complaint.

Kimbrough said he uses heroine mixed with fentanyl and understands the risk of overdosing on it, which is why he keeps Narcan, a medication used to reverse the effects of opioid drugs, in his car.

According to court records, Kimbrough was convicted of delivering cocaine at or near a park in Waukesha County in 2019. He was sentenced to three years in prison followed by four years of extended supervision.

He was also convicted of delivering cocaine in Milwaukee County in 2000 and 2024. He received a stayed prison sentence for the 2000 conviction and on July 7 was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison and 2-1/2 years of extended supervision for his 2024 conviction.

Kimbrough, whose bail in Ozaukee County was set at $250,000 in July 2024, has been behind bars since his arrest. He is currently being held in the New Lisbon Correctional Institution in Juneau County in connection with an unrelated case.