Second suspect in Worcester Co. fentanyl distribution investigation sentenced

SNOW HILL, Md. – The second of two co-defendants in a drug distribution investigation has been sentenced.

The charges stem from an investigation that began on September 25, 2021, after an employee of an Ocean City hotel, identified as 37-year-old Christopher Price, failed to show up for work. Hotel employees made entry into Price’s apartment and found him deceased. Ocean City Police Department detectives were called in and obtained cell phone records, which revealed that Price had been in recent contact with Bryan Zimmerman. Extensive analysis of digital evidence revealed that Zimmerman and Leigh Ann Williams had traveled in a vehicle to sell Price what Price reportedly believed was Xanax. Detectives also learned that Zimmerman had been arrested two days prior for possession of fentanyl.

Autopsy results revealed that Price’s cause of death was fentanyl and ethanol intoxication, and as a result, Zimmerman was indicted by the Worcester County Grand Jury in November 2021. Williams was charged for her role in the incident on April 5, 2022, and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.

Williams has been sentenced to 10 years in the Division of Correction with all but 5 years suspended and placed on three years of supervised probation on release.

Zimmerman was previously convicted of distribution of fentanyl and was sentenced to serve 20 years with all but 10 years suspended and placed on 5 years of supervised probation on release.