Man Dies After Eating Cocaine Hidden in Brother’s Buttocks

A South Carolina man with a lengthy criminal record asked his younger brother to make the ultimate sacrifice for him. An hour later his brother was dead.

Deangelo Rashard Mitchell, 23, of North Charleston, SC, was handcuffed with his brother, Wayne Joshua Mitchell, 20, in the back seat of a patrol car on Nov. 30. The two men had been pulled over in their truck for driving with one headlight out. Officers placed the brothers in the back seat while they searched the truck.

Facing life in prison if convicted on the drug charge, Deangelo, who had hidden an ounce of crack cocaine in his buttocks, asked Wayne to swallow the drugs.

The patrol car’s video camera caught the verbal exchange between the brothers.

“One of us gotta do it, you the only one that don’t have any strikes. You my little brother… I’m gonna get life,” Deangelo pleaded. “You gonna eat it, you gonna chew it,” said Deangelo, pictured above right. “I can get you out. I can’t afford another strike.”

The older brother retrieved the crack rocks from where he’d hidden them in his buttocks and dropped the drugs on the seat between them.

Wayne complied with his brother’s request and ate the rock cocaine off the seat. Moments later, Wayne began having difficulty breathing and went into convulsions. Deangelo told police that Wayne swallowed crack cocaine after police spotted cocaine residue on the seat.

The onset of the lethal overdose was immediate. Wayne suffered a cardiac arrest and began bleeding from his mouth. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“It’s sickening,” said North Charleston police chief Jon Zumwalt. “I got upset when I saw the [video], I’m pretty shocked about it.

He added: “For me, an older brother is supposed to love his little brother, have his back and take good care of him. That’s not what was happening in this car.”

Deangelo was charged with trafficking drugs and he posted bond on December 1.

Toxicology results confirmed that Wayne died as a direct result of ingesting the alkaloid form of powder cocaine.

Police decided to upgrade the drug charge to murder, and are now looking for Deangelo to arrest him.