In 2020, Devarus Oshay Bethea was freed from state prison for the third time in ten years, all on drug-related crimes. His age was 33.
He is currently 37. He was given his harshest sentence to date, 14 years in jail, with an extra five years to serve consecutively, by Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols on Friday. Bethea entered a plea to third-degree felony of unlawful use of a communication device and first-degree felony of trafficking fentanyl. He might have been fined $100,000 and imprisoned for 35 years. They waived the fine.
Days before Christmas, Sheriff Rick Staly launched the Flagler County Sheriff’s Operation Silent Night, which resulted in the arrest of 12 local citizens, including Bethea. Since then, Bethea has been detained in the county jail on a bond of $202,500. With gain time, or early release for good behavior, he may be out in 12 years, just in time for his 50th birthday, after the 190 days that were credited to his prison sentence.
In February 2024, investigators from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department used a confidential source to set up a sting operation. Unaware of the source’s identity, Bethea consented to meet with him and sell 14 grams of what turned out to be fentanyl—a significant quantity of the deadly substance. Both audio and video recording devices recorded the transaction. He was taken into custody at a Palm Coast residence on Laramle Drive.
He was under the notion that Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis was offering Nichols ten years in prison, so he wrote a letter of regret to Nichols in late April. He requested the judge to allow him to serve five years and five years on probation, citing his duty to his 4-year-old daughter, attempting a Latin lesson, and drawing a comparison to Michelangelo’s David.
In this letter, Bethea said, “I am writing to you today out of uncertainty, fear, and a very reasonable sense of impending heartache for, most importantly, my daughter and myself.” The phrase “remorseus conscientiae,” which means “torment of the conscience,” is where the term “remorse” originates. In this metaphysical cosmos of infinite numbers, I would struggle to get results if I could figure out how to quantify the degree or severity of such a phrase.
He told the judge that while the immaturity that had put him in jail in 2019 had subsided, he was unable to support his family for a while and, in a moment of desperation, resorted to his old habits. He was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to county jail for driving with a revoked license, was charged with battery that same year (the charge was dropped), pleaded guilty to felony battery the following year, and spent nearly a year in jail after being charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault, and felony child abuse for assaulting the mother of his then-2-year-old child while she was holding the young girl. He also broke his no-contact order while in jail by contacting the mother.
When Lewis is arguing for jail time in front of a judge, he does not let that history go. He explains everything in depth.
The statue of David took more than one ball of clay and a day’s labor, and despite his perfection, he still had flaws. Bethea continued in his letter to the judge by stating that he had been working on his GED in order to obtain a CDL license and provide for our family.
“I don’t want to miss the special moments and milestones as my daughter grows up through monthly visits,” he continued. The role of a father in a child’s life is very important. I want to spend the rest of my life giving her the life she deserves—a life that is better than mine—and establishing a good example for her. If he gets freed with gain time, his daughter will be at least 16 years old; if he serves out his entire term, she will be an adult.
