United States Attorney's Office
United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced Michael Reis, age 29, of Omaha, Nebraska was convicted by a jury on October 9, 2024, in federal court in Omaha for distributing fentanyl that resulted in the death of a 4-year-old. United States District Judge Brian C. Buescher presided over the trial.
On March 12, 2022, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) Deputies were dispatched to the Aspen Grove apartment complex for an unresponsive 4-year-old. Upon arrival, deputies began CPR until an ambulance could take the child to Children’s Hospital and Medical Center. The child was later pronounced dead due to fentanyl toxicity.
DCSO crime scene investigators, laboratory technicians, and fentanyl overdose investigators assisted in the investigation. Michael Reis was eventually identified as a person of interest. On March 27, 2022, Reis was arrested on an outstanding warrant. A search warrant was executed on Reis’s phone which detailed an extensive history of selling pills to the child’s mother. Messages found in Reis’s phone from March 12, 2022, showed that Reis delivered a pill to the child’s mother and that Reis received digital payment from her.
In addition to the testimony by DCSO investigators, Dr. Robert Bowen and Dr. Suzanne Haney testified extensively on the child’s cause of death. Dr. Bowen is the Douglas County Coroner’s physician assistant (pathologist) and Dr. Haney is both the Medical Director of Project Harmony and Chief Physician of Child Abuse Pediatrics at Children’s and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“I am immensely proud of the team efforts of our DCSO Deputies and our local and federal partners in law enforcement, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office, to bring justice to [this child],” said Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson. “Fentanyl and fentanyl dealers are a true scourge in our community. Those who deal and recklessly possess fentanyl should know that there is no room for them in a safe civil society and that they will be pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Sentencing is set for January 9, 2025. The penalties for distributing fentanyl resulting in death include a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 20 years. There is no maximum sentence.
Michael Reis has a second federal case in which he pled guilty to sex trafficking of a minor. Sentencing for that matter is set for December 5, 2024. The penalties for sex trafficking a minor include a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years. The maximum sentence is life.
This case was investigated by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration.