COURTLAND

A second suspect has been charged in connection to the June 11 incident at Southampton High School, which resulted in eight students being hospitalized after reportedly consuming drug-laced candy.

According to Lt. Camden Cobb, a spokesman for the Southampton County Sheriff’s Office, a juvenile intake officer issued a detention order for the arrest of a 16-year-old female SHS student last week. Cobb said the student turned herself in to the Sheriff’s Office without incident on Sunday, June 16 and was charged with nine counts of possession with intent to distribute schedule I/II narcotics, as well as nine counts of distribution of drugs on school grounds.

Following her being charged, the student was transported to Chesapeake Juvenile Services in Chesapeake, Virginia. She appeared in Southampton County’s Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court on Monday, June 17, and was released to the custody of her parents.

Evidence in this case has been submitted to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, Cobb said, however, an analysis was not yet available as of the morning of Tuesday, June 18.

The Tidewater News previously reported in its Sunday, June 16 edition that court documents associated with the arrest of Jaden Devon Phillips, 18, of Suffolk – who is accused of providing the drug-laced candy – state that this female SHS student sold packets of Gummi candies for a couple dollars each to her classmates, who thought the candy was infused with marijuana. The documents then state that she identified Phillips as her source.

The newspaper also reported on Sunday that whatever was in the candy apparently caused those students to become sick enough to require being sent to Southampton Memorial Hospital. Seven were later released the day of the incident, and the eighth was taken to another facility for observation. That person was also later released.