Lansing man sentenced after selling teen fatal dose of fentanyl via Snapchat
A 20-year-old Lansing man was sentenced Friday to just under 13 years in prison after selling a Lansing teen a lethal dose of fentanyl via Snapchat in 2023.
Torin Michael Baughman was sentenced to 155 months in prison by a Leavenworth County judge. He was convicted in November on one count of distribution of a controlled substance causing death.
Baughman used Snapchat to sell a fentanyl-laced pill to Nicholas “Cruz” Burris on Jan. 17, 2023, according to court documents. Burris, who allegedly thought he was buying a Percocet, took the pill that Baughman delivered around 11:30 p.m. and fatally overdosed that same night.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid about 50 times stronger than heroin.
Baughman was booked into the Leavenworth County Jail on March 20, 2024, originally on suspicion of first-degree murder and endangerment of a child. While held at the jail on a $500,000 bond, Baughman pleaded not guilty to the initial charges before accepting a plea deal in November.
Though Burris’ parents were immediately aware of who had sold their son the pill, it took police nine months to access the contents of Baughman’s phone and discover enough evidence to make an arrest.
““This tragic incident resulted in the loss of a 15-year-old boy who was a student, a son, and a valued member of our community,” Leavenworth County attorney Todd Thompson said in a statement Thursday. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family, who maintained communication with my office throughout this process.”
Burris, an avid guitar and piano player, hoped to become an engineer or a contractor. The teen’s parents remember their son as social, funny and ambitious.
“He was much on his way to becoming anything he wanted to be,” Burris’ father, Andy, told The Star earlier this year.
According to an investigation by The Star, fentanyl has killed more than 850 people in the nine counties touching the Kansas City area since 2018.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has considered fentanyl “the dominant drug for deaths” since 2020, lead data analyst Andrew Hunter previously told The Star.
Previous reporting from Judy Thomas, Laura Bauer, Kendrick Calfee and Jenna Thompson contributed to this article.
This story was originally published January 3, 2025 at 3:36 PM.
