Man pleads guilty in overdose death

May 10—THOMASVILLE — A High Point man who was charged in connection with the overdose death of a Thomasville man in 2021 has pleaded guilty to death by distribution.

On May 28, 2021, Thomasville Police Department officers went to a residence on James Avenue and found Jacob Fields, 35, dead. An autopsy report revealed Fields died from a fentanyl overdose.

After a lengthy investigation detectives identified Larento Valentino Grady Jr., 30, as the person who supplied the fentanyl.

On June 13, 2022, High Point officers assisted Thomasville police in finding and arresting Grady at his High Point residence without incident. Grady was indicted by a Davidson County grand jury in July 2022 on one count of second-degree murder and one count of death by distribution.

On Wednesday, Grady pleaded guilty to death by distribution before Davidson County Superior Court Judge Lori Hamilton as his trial was set to begin. Grady was sentenced to a minimum prison term of eight years and three months and a maximum term of 11 years, according to Thomasville police.

Grady’s criminal history includes being one of three people arrested more than seven years ago in the homicide of Army-Navy store owner Jack Little of High Point.

Little was stabbed to death in his Whetstone Army-Navy Surplus store on S. Main Street during a robbery on Feb. 11, 2017. He was 65 years old, and his store was a popular spot in the city for decades as a place to purchase guns, hunting knives and outdoors gear.

Kemione Shafic Grady, who is a brother of Larento Grady, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November 2020 in Guilford County Superior Court. Kemione Grady, 22 years old at the time, was sentenced to a minimum of 13 years and a maximum of 16 years and eight months in prison.

Larento Grady was arrested along with a 28-year-old woman. Both were charged with being accessories after the fact and possessing stolen goods.