Andre Boren said he hopes the eight-year jail sentence handed down to the DeLand teenager who gave his son a lethal dose of fentanyl will make young people think carefully about peddling drugs.
Boren’s son, Landon, was a teenager from DeLand. He was 17 when he died in the summer of 2023, just weeks before beginning his senior year at DeLand High School.
Daniel Arvizo was also 17 when he sold the fentanyl to Landon Boren, who died in his house. As part of a plea agreement, Arvizo was sentenced to eight years in jail and seven years of probation. According to a criminal affidavit, Arvizo attended DeLand High School.
Andre Boren said in an interview Tuesday that he was pleased with the plea agreement.
“I got most of what I wanted,” he replied. “He’s going to prison for a while.”
He stated that many criminals fulfill their terms, then violate probation, and end up back in prison.
Boren speculated that Arvizo would improve his behavior while in prison. Perhaps he will not.
“I hope that he will change,” Boren stated. “If he doesn’t, that is his responsibility. Whether he’ll change and become a better criminal or a better human being.
Arvizo, who turned 19 on October 21, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in Landon Boren’s death as part of the arrangement during a hearing on October 30.
Arvizo also pleaded no contest to possessing fentanyl with the intent to sell, possessing synthetic cannabinoids with the intent to sell, selling fentanyl within 1,000 feet of a place of worship, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, possessing cannabis with the intent to sell, and driving while suspended.
Circuit Judge A. Kathleen McNeilly found Arvizo guilty and sentenced him by the conditions of the plea agreement struck by prosecutors and Arvizo’s defense attorney.
Once freed from prison, Arvizo must pay $3,129.54 in restitution for Landon Boren’s service and cremation in $50 monthly installments.
Andre Boren stated that Arvizo did not comment on the sentencing.
Boren also stated that the procedure went rapidly. He stated that he received a call from the prosecution the day before the hearing indicating that Arvizo might submit a plea.
Boren expressed anxiety that if they went to trial, only one juror would sympathize with Arvizo, preventing a conviction.
He stated that Arvizo and his defense attorney had requested a sentence of five years in prison followed by five years probation. But Boren refused to accept that. He was aware, however, that Arvizo was a juvenile at the time of the incident and had no prior arrests.
“I knew from the get-go that I wasn’t going to get him to go to prison for life,” he told me.
Boren stated that he expected Arvizo to consider the plea bargain before signing it.
“He was reading it, he was looking at it, I think something sank in that, you know, this is the beginning of a long, long period for me,” Boren went on.
Boren declined to speak at the sentencing. However, he stated that he would have preferred that the sentence take place a week or two later so that other family members who wished to speak could do so.
He did, however, say that it was wonderful that it was finished.
“It’s been 15 months since my kid died, and you know, it’s just, it was time to take care of it,” Andre Boren told reporters.
An awful finding
On July 30, 2023, at 3 p.m., Andre Boren entered his son’s room to check on him because he hadn’t yet emerged.
The father noticed powder on his son’s cell phone and a straw between his knees. He attempted to wake him, but it was ineffective.
Boren has been involved in death investigations for 25 years, first as a detective with the Orlando Police Department and now as an investigator with the Seminole County Medical Examiner’s Office.
He realized his son was gone.
He explained that Landon worked at the DeLand Skating Rink and aspired to be a professional fighter. After he quit boxing, he intended to become a pharmacist.
Arvizo was arrested the day after Landon Boren died, first on drug allegations and later on manslaughter accusations.
Boren praised the Volusia Sheriff’s Office detectives.
“From the beginning, they took my son’s death very seriously. “They had the kid in custody the next day,” he stated.
The detectives assembled a compelling case.
“They covered all the bases,” Boren explained. “You know, as a homicide detective, I probably would have never got a case so tight in my time.”
Source: DeLand teen gets prison for other teen’s fentanyl overdose death
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