ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — Tricia Otto's photos tell part of her son's story.
"This is my favorite of him with his brother," Otto said, showing photos of Calvin Grace's life. "He was an amazing fisherman. He's an outstanding football player. Before addiction found him, that was my son"
Grace died last year at age 29 from a fentanyl overdose.
Police photos tell the final chapter, showing the drug paraphernalia found in his bedroom.
But the story doesn't end there.
The man accused of selling the deadly pills to Grace, Raffiel Lemar Walker, 36, is now charged with fentanyl distribution causing death, a charge created under a 2022 state law increasing penalties for dealers.
Still, Otto said she had to fight to ensure her son's case was taken to court. The arrest affidavit stated that she hired an independent toxicologist to review the toxicology report and even went through her son's phone "to locate the dealers who sold him the drugs and much more information."
"Drug dealers and others prey upon the vulnerability of addiction for their own profit," Otto said. "This is a deliberate act of greed and malice that ends lives and devastates families."
Denver7 Investigates has learned that prosecutions have been rare since the new law passed two years ago.
In the First Judicial District, covering Jefferson and Gilpin counties, there have been only four cases of fentanyl distribution causing death. In the 2nd Judicial District, covering Denver, there have been six cases. The 18th Judicial District, which covers Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, also reported six cases.
Meanwhile, fentanyl overdoses claim hundreds of lives in Colorado every year.
"These cases are very difficult and very time-consuming to prosecute," Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown said. "You have to track down how the individual who overdosed and who unfortunately died from the consumption of those narcotics, how they got their hands on it, whether it was through a social media platform, whether it was through somebody just on the street. So there's a lot of work that goes into that."
Brown recently announced his department's first arrests related to a fentanyl death and said there has been a learning curve for enforcing the new law since proving the crime can be a challenge.
Still, more prosecutors are taking cases to court and publicly announcing charges.
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann announced fentanyl death charges in September, saying, "To send the message to the community that people who are accused of selling this poison in Denver will be prosecuted by my office to the fullest extent of the law."
The issue is critical, according to Brown, who said his deputies deal with fentanyl overdoses regularly. Arecent video from Arapahoe County shoes deputies saving a life by administering Narcan.
"As the prosecutions start to happen, I think people are going to say, 'Oh, we can do this. There is a model for it,'" said Brown. "It always takes the first couple and then the ball starts rolling. And I think if we take one drug dealer off the street, and it stops them from selling fentanyl to one more person and taking their life, it's 100% worth it."
Meanwhile, Otto is fighting to keep what happened to her son from happening to anyone else, while she keeps his memory alive.
"This is about saving other people's lives. I wish my son had the chance to live the life he dreamed of living," she said. "He was stolen. He was stolen."
