Evansville man sentenced to more than 13 years for selling the pill that killed Cash O’Nan
More than two years ago, Gialene O’Nan’s son, Cash, died from a drug overdose. On Thursday, the man who sold the fentanyl that killed Cash was sentenced to 13 years and 7 months in federal prison.
“I’m glad that it’s over,” said Gialene O’Nan in a Friday phone interview with the Hendersonian.
But she also said she has mixed feelings now that the court procedures are over. Since his death, she has been fighting for Cash—that fight included regular court appearances.
“How am I going to continue to fight for him?” Gialene said. “I know he’s not coming back. It’s just hard.
“I want to keep Cash alive by helping people, and the court was one way of doing that,” she said.
Gialene and her family will continue to do something for Cash, though. They just haven’t yet figured out what that is.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do, but we’re not going to let it pass,” she said.
In addition to the prison time, Austin Jenkins, 26, of Evansville, will also get five years of supervised released after he serves his time, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky,
There is no parole in the federal prison system.
He was found guilty of one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, said the release.
Before Thursday’s sentencing, Gialene and her family prayed about how to handle themselves once they got into the courtroom.
“We prayed about it,” she said. “I asked God to give me enough strength to get through it.”
Once inside, she was able to give her victim statement.
“I told Mr. Jenkins that I forgave him because that’s what we do,” she said. And she said that she prayed for Jenkins’ two children, noting that this outcome also affects another family—not just hers.
“We lost our son forever,” she said. “They’re going to lose their son/father for 13 years.”
She also said Jenkins was very remorseful in court and said he quit selling and taking drugs the day he found out about Cash’s death.
“I pray that’s the case,” Gialene said.
In a previous Hendersonian article, Gialene detailed what occurred the days surrounding Cash’s death in Oct. 2022.
On the day of his death, O’Nan said she was at work in the emergency room at Deaconess Henderson Hospital when she got a text message at about 4 p.m. from her husband, Steve, who told her to call him immediately. “I think Cash is dead,” he told her when they spoke on the phone.
He wasn’t sure because the door of Cash’s upstairs bedroom was locked, and O’Nan believes it had been locked since the night before, when her son came home, talked to her a bit and then told her he was going to bed. He locked the door and took a pill, O’Nan said.
“He had probably died right after he’d gone to bed,” she said. “One pill can kill, and he got that pill.”
She was up early the next morning, unaware of what had occurred, and off to work, and Steve didn’t check on Cash until the afternoon when his son still hadn’t come out of his bedroom. When law enforcement and paramedics arrived, they were able to break down the door and confirm that Cash had died.
Gialene said Cash had problems, but he was a good kid. “He had a devil habit,” she said. “He had a demon he couldn’t overcome.”
She said she agrees with the sentencing. It’s enough.
“I can get stuck in this negativity for the rest of my life, or I can move on and do something positive for Cash,” Gialene said. “We have to think about what Cash would have done in this situation, and he would have forgiven him.”
The constant court dates, the forgiveness, and now moving on to help others—“It’s for Cash,” she said.
