MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prince thought he was taking a common painkiller and probably did not know a counterfeit pill he ingested contained fentanyl, a Minnesota prosecutor said Thursday as he announced that no charges would be filed in the musician's death. “County Attorney Metz will articulate the legal status of these matters (during Thursday’s press conference) but County Attorney Metz will not take media questions following the announcement.”

Prince died at the age of 57 on April 21, 2016, at his Paisley Park estate. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Prince was found dead at his Minneapolis-area estate in April 2016

No criminal charges will be brought over the death of US musician Prince in April 2016, prosecutors say. Though it had been known for some time that Prince had died of an accidental overdose of the synthetic opiate fentanyl, the confidential report revealed that the concentration of the painkiller was "exceedingly high." A laboratory report obtained by The Associated Press notes that one of the pills found in a prescription bottle in Paisley Park that bore Johnson’s name tested positive for oxycodone. Authorities found numerous pills in various containers stashed around Prince’s home, including some counterfeit pills that contained fentanyl. State and federal authorities have been investigating the source of the fentanyl for nearly two years, and have still not determined where the drug came from or how Prince got it. Six days before Prince died, he also fell ill and passed out on his private plane while returning to Minneapolis from performing in Atlanta, where he had told his audiences he had been feeling “under the weather.”

His plane made an emergency stop in Moline, Ill., where paramedics scrambled to revive him on the tarmac, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The day before Prince’s death, his representatives also had reached out to Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a Mill Valley addiction specialist who is a nationally recognized expert in treating opioid addiction. The settlement between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, dated Monday, does not name Prince or make any references to the Prince investigation, but search warrants previously released say Schulenberg told authorities he prescribed oxycodone to Prince on April 14 and put it under the name of Prince’s bodyguard and close friend, Kirk Johnson, “for Prince’s privacy.” Schulenberg’s attorney has disputed that. Federal prosecutors and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration alleged Schulenberg, a family physician who saw Prince at least twice before he died, violated the Controlled Substances Act when he wrote a prescription in the name of someone else on April 14, 2016.
Prosecutors in Minnesota say nobody will be charged over the death of Prince, who accidentally overdosed on counterfeit fentanyl pills.