Man sentenced to 35 years after teen dies from overdose
Posted/updated on: July 14, 2025 at 3:22 am
TYLER – A Tyler man was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Thursday after a 17-year-old died from a fentanyl overdose in 2022, according to a report from our news partner KETK.
On Thursday, Billy Bernard Maddox, Jr. pleaded guilty to bail jumping, failure to appear and tampering/fabricating physical evidence with the intent to impair. He was then sentenced to 35 years in prison for the overdose death of the Tyler Teen. He was previously charged with manslaughter in 2023, but the charge was dismissed.
On the afternoon of April 23, 2022, Tyler police detectives were called to a local hospital where a patient had died of an apparent overdose, identified as 17-year-old Preston Hawley. He was brought to the hospital wearing pants, a belt, socks, but no shirt, shoes or cell phone, according to court documents.
Maddox, a “known drug dealer,” was also at the hospital and spoke with detectives. Hawley used to live with Maddox before moving back home with his mom, but continued to hang out with him on the weekends. Maddox told detectives that he and Hawley went to a party around 3 a.m. that day, then went to a house on Loblolly Lane around 5 a.m. to sleep. At that time, documents show that Maddox claimed Hawley was coherent and did not appear to be under the influence of any substances.
Maddox explained to police that he attempted to wake Hawley up and assumed Hawley was “in a deep sleep” when he would not wake up. At that time, Maddox reportedly said he left the Loblolly Lane house to go to the fair in the Broadway Square Mall parking lot before returning and finding that Hawley was still asleep.
Maddox said he tried to wake Hawley again by throwing water on him and attempting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and at that time could feel a faint pulse and labored breathing. He then called Hawley’s mother “and said Hawley was breathing slowly and his heartbeat is going slow. She told Maddox to get him to the hospital.”
With no vehicle to drive, Maddox later told detectives he flagged down a stranger who he claimed was driving through the Loblolly Lane neighborhood. Detectives later found the stranger, who said he was approached by a man at a gas station at Rieck Road and Old Bullard Road.
The driver said that when he came out of the gas station, Maddox approached him and said he needed his help to take his friend to the hospital because he believed his friend was overdosing, according to the warrant. Maddox left on foot, and the driver drove his truck to follow him.
The driver told a detective that he drove west on Rieck Road before turning into a second driveway of an apartment building, saying “he observed a young white man lying in the grass unconscious.” The driver put Hawley in the backseat of his truck, also telling authorities that Maddox was “acting strange and seemed like he was stalling.” The driver said he almost left Maddox because of the time he was wasting.
An arrest warrant said that Maddox misled investigators to the wrong location of Hawley’s overdose, failed to disclose the location of Hawley’s cell phone and moved items out of his apartment the night of and morning after his death. A detective said she had reason to believe that the illegal drugs linked to Hawley’s death, including cocaine and fentanyl, were destroyed.
Detectives later obtained Maddox’s Snapchat, where they saw messages from Maddox, saying, “Yess we getting all my stuff out my apartment kuz lil bro mom think I had some to do with it.” and, “Then his mom trynna make it seem like I sold him the pills n I don’t sell pills.”
Investigators learned that Hawley’s toxicology report from his autopsy showed he had cocaine, fentanyl, delta-9 THC and Bromazolam in his system at the time of his death.
In September of 2022, Maddox was charged with tampering/fabricating with intent to impair evidence and bonded out the same day. He was later arrested on a manslaughter charge in May of 2022 in connection to the same case.
In February of 2025, the U.S. Marshals’ Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force tried to serve a failure-to-appear warrant for a murder charge to Maddox at the Liberty Arms Apartments in Tyler. However, Maddox ran from the scene, but was later caught near County Road 14.
Maddox was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Thursday for his involvement in the overdose death of Hawley.
