Teen called “largest dealer of fentanyl in Brown County schools” to stay in adult court for overdose death

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - A teenager identified as a major drug dealer in Green Bay schools lost her effort to move her homicide case to juvenile court.

Sixteen-year-old Maylia Sotelo is charged as an adult with 1st-degree reckless homicide for the death of an 18-year-old who was found slumped over in his bedroom last December.

As Action 2 News first alerted you last month, Sotelo’s defense requested a reverse waiver hearing to move the case out of adult court. During that hearing a narcotics officer affirmed the prosecutor’s portrayal of Sotelo as “the largest drug dealer of fentanyl identified in the schools in Brown County,” and called the seizure of fentanyl one of the ten biggest by the Brown County Narcotics Task Force last year.

In a reverse waiver hearing, the defense had to show Sotelo couldn’t receive adequate treatment in the criminal justice system. Prosecutors argued keeping Sotelo in the adult system ensures she gets services long enough for rehabilitation.

According to the criminal complaint, a friend of the 18-year-old victim said he arranged to buy Percocet from a teenage girl. The friend said she heard about “a bad batch” going around and suspected after her friend’s death that the victim “got laced.”

Police identified the teenage girl as Sotelo, who was already under investigation by the Brown County Drug Task Force. They arranged a drug purchase and then took her into custody.

Sotelo was 15 at the time.

Her next court date is in September.

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