WESTFIELD — A Westfield father has justice after his son died of a drug overdose two-years-ago.
"I feel better than I have in a long time. I buried Jake two-years-ago on this date, July 19," Richard Lampe said.
Jake Lampe was Richard's only son.
"We spent hundreds of hours on the golf course. It was wonderful. We took a lot of vacations. I have a lot of memories of that, so that was nice," Lampe said.
Jake died at his home in July 2022 from fentanyl poisoning. He was 23-years-old.
The Xanax pills he thought he was buying were fake.
"He made some bad choices, but he didn't deserve to die," Lampe said. "He had a kind soul and that's what hurts."
Right away, Lampe gave Jake's cell phone and other evidence to law enforcement to find who was responsible.
With work from the Westfield Police Department, the DEA and Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office, Benjamine Ingram was charged with dealing a controlled substance resulting in death.
"When you purchase something like a Xanax or other pills, people that are making a mistake to use that, they're not signing up to die that day, and that's where the poisonings come in," DEA Special Agent in Charge Michael Gannon said. "I'm the first to say there's never a worse time in our country to take drugs."
On Friday, a jury found Ingram guilty.
"It was just such a sense of relief," Lampe said.
Justice that the family waited two years for.
"We had eight delays, eight continuances on the trial. It's very stressful because it opens up a lot of wounds. So, I'm really relieved that that's over," Lampe said.
It's a tough process to get through, Lampe says, but he encourages families to stick together and not be afraid to reach out for help.
"I've met with a lot of parents that have called me and they're scared because maybe they had some trouble in the past. They're [law enforcement] not worried about that. They're just worried about this one case. So, don't worry about it," Lampe said. "Turn everything over you have because I'm telling you, it's going to make all the difference in the world."
"We talk about this a lot, how important it is to hold people accountable that are poison people, not just in Indianapolis, Hamilton County or surrounding areas, but across the country," Gannon said.
Ingram faces up to 40 years in prison. He has a sentencing hearing in August.
Lampe created the Jacob Richard Lampe Foundation in honor of his son.
We decided to do two pillars. One to help underfunded, no kill animal shelters because he loved animals," Lampe said. "And we were able to raise enough funds to scholarship some young individuals going through substance abuse disorder with Fairbanks hospital."
