In April 2023, George Sapp was placed on community control and probation for supplying oxycodone to Charity Huntley, leaving her family visibly distraught in the courtroom.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A man from Jacksonville Beach faced sentencing in Duval County court Thursday morning, admitting to providing oxycodone to Charity Huntley, a popular singer from Jacksonville, which resulted in her death.
George Sapp received a sentence of two years under community control with electronic monitoring, followed by three years on drug offender probation, receiving credit for two days already served.
Sapp was sentenced after pleading guilty to delivery of oxycodone, a second-degree felony. The charge stems from an incident on April 6, 2023, when Sapp gave Huntley half a Percocet pill during a night out on a boat. Huntley later died, with fentanyl and other substances found in her system, though the medical examiner could not link her death directly to the oxycodone.
First Coast News crews were in court Thursday as emotions boiled over. Huntley’s family expressed deep disappointment with the outcome.
“I feel they completely let her down,” said Huntley’s sister, Faith Andrews, following Thursday’s sentencing.
Andrews, Huntley’s younger sister, spoke passionately about the loss of her “big sister, best friend, and protector,” who was a model, dancer, and advocate for women. Andrews and members of the Huntley family wore a shirt reading, “There’s no faith without charity and no charity without faith.”
Sapp’s defense presented him as a community-oriented man, with witnesses like neighbor Lewis Nanny and girlfriend Nataliya Semenchuk testifying to his kindness and responsibility.
“George came up, asked me if he could provide any help to me, and I said yes, and I asked him to go get some ice, a bag of ice, which he did, and he came back and supported me till the EMS came,” said Nanny, Sapp’s neighbor.
“He is always working, also stable, always making sure me and my son have everything we need. He’s a hardworking guy,” said Semenchuk, “he means no harm to anybody. He’s there to help people, to protect people, that’s the type of person he is.”
Judge Tatiana Salvador acknowledged the case’s complexity but emphasized she could only sentence Sapp for the oxycodone delivery, not Huntley’s death. Despite the defense’s request for a withhold of adjudication, Salvador adjudicated Sapp guilty. The state also cited Sapp’s criminal history dating back to 2001.
“You are going to today become a convicted felon. That means you will not be able to possess a firearm. That means you will not be able to be an armed security guard,” said Salvador.
Mary Huntley, Charity’s mother, shared a heartfelt statement about her daughter and expressed her frustration following the Judge’s sentence.
“I would never be able to see my daughter get married, have children. I would never hear another album or watch her walk the runway. I would never be able to see her sing another song,” she said.
“Going forward, we will forever keep her name. We’ll forever blast her music, we’ll forever show her runways. Because the community of modeling know who she was. Everyone knew who she was. So for that, we would just keep screaming her name.” said Andrews.
