News

Dealer gets prison time for death by fentanyl

Heather Marie Maybin

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 7, 2025

A judge sentenced a 38-year-old Hendersonville woman to up to seven years, eight months in prison after a Henderson County jury found her guilty of death by distribution on Thursday, District Attorney R. Andrew Murray announced.

According to the investigation and court trial record, Heather Marie Maybin was a known drug dealer who conducted her controlled substances activities over the social media platform Facebook Messenger. Maybin helped arrange a transaction that took place on Feb. 6, 2023, in the Walmart parking lot in Highland Square, testimony showed. The transaction involved a quantity of fentanyl sold for $40 . Later that evening, the victim and a friend ingested the drug. The victim used a hypodermic needle to introduce the fentanyl into her body, which caused her to lose consciousness and stop breathing.

Dr. Patrick Lantz of the Wake Forest Medical Center determined the victim died of fentanyl toxicity. The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office was able to solve the case through witness interviews and communications received via Facebook Messenger, obtained with a search warrant. Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin sentenced Maybin to a minimum term of 5½ years in state prison.   

Assistant District Attorneys James Capps and Michael Van Buren handled the prosecution and sentencing. Murray thanked lead Detective Scott Aly and the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office for the professional and thorough investigation.

“My office, along with our dedicated and professional partners, is committed to ridding our community of fentanyl by holding drug dealers accountable for these untimely and extremely tragic deaths,” Murray said.