COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — A man accused of supplying fentanyl that prosecutors say caused another person’s death in 2023 is scheduled to stand trial in August, according to court records.
William Hunter Cross was booked April 23, 2026, on charges of murder, multiple counts of purchase, possession, manufacture, distribution or sale of a controlled substance, and reckless conduct, according to booking records. A Coweta County grand jury had formally indicted Cross on Feb. 17, 2026, on two counts: felony murder under O.C.G.A. § 16-5-1(c) and distribution of fentanyl under O.C.G.A. § 16-13-30(b), court records show. Under the state’s theory, the felony murder count is predicated on the alleged fentanyl distribution.
The charges stem from an incident on Aug. 19, 2023, at an O’Reilly Auto Parts store in Coweta County, according to an officer’s narrative from the initial incident report. Notably, that initial narrative described a suspected overdose and did not identify the substance involved; the fentanyl allegation appears in the 2026 indictment, not in the 2023 report.
Deputies were dispatched to the store at approximately 7:02 p.m. in reference to a report of cardiac arrest, the officer wrote. Upon arrival, the officer was directed to the store’s bathroom, where a man was found unresponsive.
The officer observed a lighter in the man’s hand and a piece of aluminum foil with a burnt substance on it nearby, according to the report. “With my knowledge and training, I suspected the foil to be used to ingest illegal substances,” the officer wrote. The report does not state that the substance was tested or identified at the scene.
A relative at the scene told the officer the man had been recovering from heroin use for approximately three years, and the man’s wife said heroin had been his drug of choice when he was using, according to the report. Investigators were called to conduct a death investigation, and the coroner was notified. No cause of death or toxicology finding appears in the records reviewed for this article.
District Attorney John Herbert Cranford, Jr. of the Coweta Judicial Circuit is prosecuting the case, with Assistant District Attorney Nathan P. Stewart listed on subsequent filings. The prosecuting officer is identified as Shawna Wade of the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office, according to court records.
Defense attorney Hannah Mitchell of The Pilgrim Law Group, LLC, entered the case Dec. 4, 2023, and filed multiple motions, including a motion to suppress evidence and a demand for discovery. Attorney Justin Flinn of the same firm substituted into the case on March 12, 2025, court records show.
Following the February 2026 indictment, a judge issued an arrest order with no bond on Feb. 19, 2026. Cross, through his attorney, waived formal arraignment on March 11, 2026, and entered a written not guilty plea while demanding a jury trial, according to court records.
The state filed a motion on April 30, 2026, to revoke Cross’s bond, arguing he poses a significant risk of committing further crimes. The motion cited new charges filed against Cross by Tift County at the time of his arrest, specifically possession of amphetamines and possession of fentanyl, court records show. A hearing on the bond revocation motion is scheduled for Aug. 4, 2026, with the jury trial set to begin Aug. 17, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. in Coweta Superior Court.
Cross is presumed innocent of all charges.