Suspected drug dealer charged with murder in Dunwoody man’s overdose death

A Gwinnett County suspect has been charged with murder after he was accused of selling drugs to a man who overdosed and died in Dunwoody in August.

Ivan Jerell Lightsey, 45, of Norcross, was linked to the death months later by investigators in Dunwoody, police spokesman Sgt. Michael Cheek said in a statement Friday. Lightsey was located in the Gwinnett jail, where he has been held since Aug. 29 on a dozen unrelated felony charges, including nine drug counts.

The case began Aug. 2 when officers were called to the 1200 block of Coronation Drive, a home in an upscale neighborhood between Spalding and Roberts drives, after getting reports of a possible overdose. At the scene, they found a 34-year-old man already dead, Cheek said. His identity has not been publicly released.

Police did not say how Lightsey was identified as the person suspected of selling the lethal dose of drugs to the victim, but Cheek noted that this is the second instance of an alleged drug dealer being charged with murder in Dunwoody after an overdose death.

In the first case, from 2019, 28-year-old Antoin Thornton was charged in the death of a 22-year-old man, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The victim in that case overdosed on heroin that had been laced with fentanyl, police Chief Billy Grogan said.

Officials in the DeKalb District Attorney’s Office admitted at the time that prosecuting the murder charge would be difficult. That prediction has borne out as Thornton’s case lingers in the system more than four years later, although court proceedings across the country suffered serious disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thornton was arrested in May 2019, about two months after the victim’s overdose. He was held in jail until March 2020, when he was released on $15,000 bond. Thornton was reindicted in November 2021 and his case still has not gone to trial, according to court records.