Indicted on a capital murder charge for his role in the drug-overdose death of 40-year-old Jeremy Kocorowski of Bunnell in March 2024, Justin Maddox, 32, of Palm Coast, was sentenced today to 16 years in prison in a plea deal that reduced the charge to manslaughter.
“Addiction is a disease,” the victim’s mother told the court in a statement she read after the sentencing. “But exploiting someone who’s struggling is not. it is predatory. It is lethal. And in this case, it was murder.”
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office investigates every drug-overdose death as a homicide until that’s ruled out. Sheriff’s detective Adam Gossett was the lead investigator. The case was prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis.
Kocorowski, just then going through a breakup, had just started working at Builders First Choice in Bunnell. It was there that Maddox sold him drugs on several occasions–Oxycodone primarily, fentanyl on occasion, in cash or through CashApp, the investigation determined. Kocorowski had told Maddox that he would help him find a job at the same workplace.
Kocorowski had been staying with a friend after his breakup. She last saw him the evening of March 27, 2024 around 7 p.m., when he was still awake. She went to sleep. He joined her later. She remembered him leaving the bedroom at 3 a.m. When the alarm went off at 4, he was not in bed. She found him on the kitchen floor, unresponsive, called 911 and started CPR. Kocorowski had died.
Maddox was also sentenced to a year and a day on what had started as three drug charges, including a first-degree felony charge of trafficking fentanyl. Two lesser charges were dropped, and the trafficking charge was reduced to possession with intent to sell.
Maddox went from potentially facing capital punishment or life in prison to a 16-year prison sentence that may be shortened roughly to 12.5 years when his 490 days of credit for time served at the county jail are applied, and “gain time,” or time off for good behavior, is applied to the rest of the sentence. He is eligible for up to 15 percent of his prison sentence as gain time, which does not apply to the time he served at the county jail.
“Every day since that day has been a living nightmare,” Kocorowski’s mother told the court. “Jeremy was a father, a son, a friend, a man who was trying to rebuild his life after some tough times. He had just started a new job. He was showing up, trying, pushing forward. He had a future, and someone took that from him. What made this pain even worse is knowing that the person responsible admitted to meeting Jeremy at his job somewhere together, admitted to selling him fentanyl on several occasions. This wasn’t an accident. This was a choice, a choice that took my son’s life.”
She described the ripple effect of her son’s death in the family, the empty holidays, the bittersweet milestones Jeremy’s daughter is marking without him.
“His absence echoes through every part of our lives,” Jeremy’s mother said. “I will never see my son get old. I will never get another phone call, another hug, another I love you Mom, and I have to live with that for the rest of my life. I am here to say my son’s name out loud to make sure that everyone in this courtroom understands Jeremy mattered. He was loved, is still loved, and his life was worth more than how it ended.”
