A 21-year-old woman will spend more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty to a manslaughter charge in connection with the fentanyl overdose death of a Volusia County man.
On Thursday, a Volusia County judge sentenced Palm Coast resident Madeline Zinno to 11 years’ imprisonment for her role in the May 2024 overdose death of a 43-year-old DeBary man. She had pleaded guilty to manslaughter stemming from a Volusia County Sheriff’s Office investigation.
According to VCSO, Zinno was one of more than three dozen suspects who were arrested during last summer’s “Operation Wild ‘N Out,” which targeted a “major fentanyl, heroin and cocaine trafficking ring.”
While Zinno remained in custody at Volusia County Jail, the VCSO Overdose Task Force continued an investigation into the overdose death of the 43-year-old DeBary man, which happened on May 22, 2024. The victim was believed to be one of Zinno’s “customers.”
VCSO stated that detectives located messages on social media between the victim and his suspected drug dealer.
“Eventually [detectives] were able to positively identify Zinno as the person who sold (the victim) drugs the night he died,” said the sheriff’s office in a media release.
A witness who saw Zinno sell fentanyl to the victim was able to describe exactly how the drugs were packaged and labeled, which matched the evidence that investigators found at the scene of the overdose death.
Over the course of the investigation, detectives gathered additional information from text messages, social media, and cellphone data, which led them to believe that Zinno sold the lethal dose of fentanyl to the victim.
On January 21, 2025, Zinno was charged with manslaughter while at Volusia County Jail, where she remained in custody while awaiting the resolution of her case.