MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Two men from North Carolina were indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on first-degree murder charges in connection with the overdose of a 24-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, who was visiting Miami Beach earlier this year.
Evoire Collier, 21, and Dorian Taylor, 24, also face charges of burglary with assault/battery, sexual battery of a helpless victim, credit card theft and petty theft.
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Taylor faces an additional murder charge in connection with the fentanyl overdose of a second tourist.
According to authorities, Christine Englehardt, who was in town for spring break, was found dead inside a room at the Albion Hotel in Miami Beach on March 18.
A medical examiner ruled her cause of death as “prone positioning while under the influence of fentanyl and ethanol.”
Investigators say the two men had met the victim at a restaurant, gave her a green pill and went to her hotel where “they had sex with her multiple times and once she was unconscious or out” the suspects “remained inside the unit and didn’t call for assistance or help and began to take all her items.”
According to police, Englehardt was found partly nude and had been drugged and raped.
Police said surveillance video showed the two men entering the Albion Hotel with the victim and later leaving without her. Taylor was later caught on surveillance cameras using the victim’s credit card at a South Beach liquor store, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Englehardt and the second victim, Walter Riley, 21, of Chicago, both died after overdosing on fentanyl, however Collier’s attorney Phil Reizenstein told the Miami Herald that he didn’t believe the medical examiner could make that determination because the autopsy showed that Englehardt had ingested various drugs before her death.
The autopsy report obtained by Local 10 News does confirm there were other drugs in her system, including cocaine, lidocaine, alprazolam and ibuprofen, among others.
According to the Miami Herald, Taylor is accused of selling fentanyl to Riley, although Riley believed he was purchasing the pain pill Percocet.
Riley was found unconscious on Washington Avenue and died two days after Englehardt.