Teen couple charged in Chisago County with murder in overdose death of 18-year-old

A teenage couple have been arrested and charged in connection with the overdose of an 18-year-old who was found unconscious in his east-central Minnesota home after downing fentanyl-laced oxycodone that was payment for a busted mailbox.

Cameron W. Johnson, of Wyoming, Minn., often received drugs from the dark web from one of the defendants before his death on Dec. 12, according to charges filed last week in Chisago County District Court.

Alexander J. Menne, 18, of Lindstrom, Minn., was charged with third-degree murder.

In juvenile court, Morgan K. Johnson, 17, of Center City, Minn., was charged with the same offense.

On the day of his death, Cameron Johnson sent a text message to someone he knew as "Bubbles." It read: "I just snorted a tiny line and I am [expletive]-up dude ur gunna be mind blown by this ... it's awesome and we can make so much ... money off of these," charging documents said.

According to the charges against the couple:

Cameron Johnson's girlfriend was attempting to revive him in the basement bathroom of a home along Comfort Lake, when a police sergeant and medical personnel took over. He was declared dead less than 30 minutes later.

Menne would order the pills by the hundreds off the dark web and have Cameron Johnson sell them around the area, the girlfriend said.

She said Cameron Johnson primarily would get high on Xanax, an antidepressant, and with marijuana or marijuana wax. There were four fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills from Menne found in the bathroom with Johnson's body, she said.

The girlfriend said she called Menne and Morgan Johnson "to confront both of them" about supplying the pills that killed Cameron Johnson. Menne said the death was not his fault, the criminal complaint against him read.

In a statement to police, Morgan Johnson said she and Menne drove into Cameron Johnson's mailbox on Dec. 9. The three made a deal that Cameron Johnson would fix the mailbox if Menne and Morgan Johnson would pay him in pills.

Morgan Johnson put the pills in the mailbox while Menne was driving on Dec. 11, the day before Cameron Johnson died.

The girlfriend replied, "I can't handle that my baby was taken by a drug you guys sold him."

Menne, who remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail, is scheduled to appear in court on March 12. Menne's attorney, Kevin DeVore, said late Tuesday that the prosecution will need to prove his client left the actual pills that killed Cameron Johnson, as well as prove that Menne left the victim any pills at all.

Because Morgan Johnson is a juvenile, no public information is available about whether she remains jailed or who her attorney might be.