Ex-Rice football player charged in opioid death of lineman

HOUSTON – Prosecutors have charged a former Rice University football player with selling the drugs that a current player fatally overdosed on earlier this year.

Twenty-five-year-old Stuart Michael Mouchantaf was being held Friday in the Harris County jail in Houston on a charge of delivery of a controlled substance causing death.

The county district attorney’s office says in a news release that 21-year-old Blain Padgett thought he was buying hydrocodone from Mouchantaf but actually received pills containing carfentanil, which was originally made as an elephant tranquilizer and is so potent that a lethal dose could be invisible to the human eye.

Padgett, a defensive lineman, was found dead in March by other players after he missed practice.

Online jail records don’t indicate whether Mouchantaf has a lawyer yet. His bond was set at $250,000.