A Newberry woman was convicted Wednesday of second-degree murder in the sale of fentanyl-laced drugs that resulted in the overdose and death of a Newberry man in March 2023.
Circuit Judge David P. Kreider announced a 15-year prison sentence for Amanda Ruth Copley, 48, of Newberry, who pleaded no contest to second-degree murder of 55-year-old Robert “Shane” Guzman. She also entered a no-contest plea on four drug-related charges, including the sale of drugs within 1,000 feet of Newberry Elementary School.
In the courtroom, Kreider heard from Copley’s mother, 72-year-old Jane Webb, while her father and sister-in-law sat in the audience.
When Webb took to the stand with a one-page handwritten letter, shaking and teary-eyed, she condemned the judicial system for using her daughter as a scapegoat in a fentanyl-related case and said Guzman “requested these pills.”
“I do not accept this; I don’t feel she did this,” she said. “It’s not because of what’s going on, it’s the judicial system and Satan.”
Kreider interjected several sentences in and stopped Webb from reading anymore of the letter, urging her to take her seat.
“It’s not about you,” he said. “I'm not going to do this because I don't want this tit for tat.”
Copley was accused of selling 10 pills containing fentanyl to Guzman for $350 on March 31, 2023.
Prosecutors in October 2023 had classified the crime as a capital felony, indicating that if a jury found Copley guilty, she could have received a death penalty sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In the March 2023 drug trade, Guzman was hesitant to purchase the pills from Copley and said it looked “busted up” and green, but Copley assured him the pills were genuine, according to the police report.
Hours later, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office officials found Guzman dead in his Newberry home, with a green powdery substance around him, which later tested positive for fentanyl.
Police officials found texts between both Copley and Guzman on his phone arranging the drug transaction, and Copley was arrested several months later on Aug. 8, 2023.
After Copley was sentenced, her mother and father, Jane and Roger Webb, said she wasn’t the only one involved, and that she was caught up in the middle of a drug-scheme.
“Amanda was just in the middle of it,” 72-year-old Roger Webb told WUFT. “She’s just taking the whole hit, and all she did as I know is use her phone to make the drug deal.”
Guzman’s family members did not reply Tuesday to phone calls seeking their comments on the judge’s sentence. His brother Scott Guzman posted a photo of Copley on Facebook, writing, “Here is the demon that killed my brother, I will do everything in my power so that she NEVER gets out of prison, I hope you rot in hell.”
Wednesday wasn’t Copley’s first time standing in front of Kreider. In April 2022, he sentenced her to 24 months of probation after she was accused of almost $3,000 in grand theft and fraud of a significant other in January 2020. She violated probation multiple times, according to court records.
On Wednesday, Kreider also found her guilty of theft and fraud charges in the same 2023 case.
Copley has already served 582 days in county jail, according to Judge Kreider, and as a result, her state prison sentence will be just short of 14 years.
