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More than three years after federal prosecutors brought charges against two then-teenagers for procuring and distributing pills containing fentanyl that led to a Dublin victim’s overdose death, the case has come to an end with both defendants pleading guilty to lesser charges for reduced sentences.
Ozymandias Watson pleaded guilty to one count of fentanyl possession with intent to distribute and was sentenced to time-served at the advice of federal prosecutors on Sept. 9 after entering into a plea agreement in March, which has since been sealed by the court.
Watson, then an Alamo resident, and Jianna Coppedge, then a Dublin resident, faced federal charges announced in 2023 for providing an unidentified Dublin resident with fentanyl-laced pills that resulted in an overdose death in 2022 when the pair were 18 and 19, respectively.
“In sum, on July 6, 2022, Mr. Watson supplied his friend, Jianna Coppedge, with several M30 pills,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed earlier this month. “She owed him money from prior supplies. He sold her the pills and was aware she might then distribute those pills to others.”
Coppedge and Watson were both searched by federal authorities later that year as the investigation into the overdose death unfolded, including surveillance footage that showed Coppedge placing the pills in the victim’s outstretched hand at a Dublin park the evening prior, and correspondences with Watson about needing pills to supply to a buyer, according to prosecutors.
Coppedge pleaded guilty to one count of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute last year, and was also sentenced to time-served. Watson’s sentencing had been delayed for several months as he dealt with a death in the family and traveled to attend a funeral.
Both defendants were also sentenced to supervised release, with Coppedge’s at three years starting in August 2025 and Watson’s at two years as of this month’s judgment.
Federal prosecutors recommended the reduced sentences for both Coppedge and Watson based on their cooperation with investigators, their admittance of wrongdoing and successful completion of drug treatment programs in the years since charges were brought forward.
In a sentencing memorandum filed ahead of this month’s hearing, prosecutors pointed to Watson’s young age at the time of the event, difficult home environment and deep troubles with addiction that they said he has since succeeded in overcoming.
“He was not a trafficker building a business,” prosecutors wrote in the Aug. 31 filing. “He was an opioid-dependent teenager selling pills to support a habit that had taken over his life.”
That addiction began with prescribed opioids following a medical procedure when Watson was 15 years old, according to prosecutors, which was spurred by a flare up in his mother’s mental health troubles the following year.
Prosecutors said they were confident in Watson’s continued recovery, noting that he had told probation officials that he has already “gotten further in his recovery than he had imagined” and no longer felt defined by his addiction.
They also emphasized Watson’s willingness to take responsibility for the harm caused by his addiction and drug sales.
“Mr. Watson does not ask the Court to overlook what he did,” prosecutors wrote. “He sold fentanyl pills to another young person struggling with addiction, and he has said in his own words that he cannot escape the thought that his conduct may have pushed others further down a path he barely survived himself.”
“He was eighteen, dependent on opioids that a hospital first put in his hands, and he chose badly and repeatedly,” they continued.
Both defendents were facing up to 20-year maximum sentences when the case began making its way through the court in 2023.
