Darknet Drug Dealer Who Shoved Xanax Down His Ex-Girlfriend’s Throat & Sprayed Fentanyl Up Her Nose Sentenced to 2.5 Years in Prison

An Everett man has been sentenced for shoving Xanax down his ex-girlfriend’s throat and spraying fentanyl up her nose at a Mukilteo hotel.

Zachary Madding, 28, was sentenced last Wednesday in Snohomish County Superior Court to two years and five months in prison. After a trial that focused on what happened between Madding and a woman in their hotel room, a jury convicted him of second-degree assault in early October.

Witnesses testified during the trial that they saw the woman run out of the Staybridge Suites hotel crying, her face flushed. She claimed Madding had forced her to ingest more drugs than she could handle.

She collapsed from an overdose that early morning in May 2018. A bystander, who happened to be a nurse, tended to her as a hotel employee dialed 911.

Meanwhile, Madding and the woman’s current boyfriend brawled near the front doors of the hotel. Her boyfriend said he pinned Madding against a bench until Mukilteo police arrived. An officer revived the woman with naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdoses.

Mukilteo police initially arrested Madding for investigation of attempted murder, and prosecutors eventually charged him with first-degree assault.

The case was tried in May, but Judge Bruce Weiss called a mistrial when a Mukilteo police officer told the jury that the defendant refused to speak to him. Attorneys feared the officer’s comment could color the jury’s perception, causing them to believe the defendant was hiding something.

October’s retrial reached a conclusion. A jury found Madding guilty on Oct. 4 of the lesser crime of second-degree assault. On Wednesday, the defense filed to appeal the conviction.

Madding’s legal troubles aren’t over. He is scheduled go to trial on Nov. 15 for two other charges related to the case: forgery and making a false statement to a public servant. He allegedly used a different name when he first talked to Mukilteo officers and had with him two fake Illinois driver licenses. Public defender Natalie Tarantino said she will be asking the court to have those charges tried separately. Madding also was indicted on federal drug trafficking charges in March. He’s under investigation for selling and mailing drugs through the dark web, according to court papers.

During the trial, Madding’s ex-girlfriend said she lives in Florida now and has become sober. She said she hasn’t used drugs in well over a year — since the morning Madding made her overdose.