Andre Boren said he hopes the eight-year prison sentence given to the DeLand teenager who sold his son a deadly dose of fentanyl will make young people think twice about dealing drugs.
Boren's son, Landon, was a teenager himself and also from DeLand. He was 17 when he died in the summer of 2023, just weeks before he would have started his senior year at DeLand High School.
Daniel Arvizo was also 17 when he sold the fentanyl to Landon Boren, who died at home. Arvizo was sentenced to eight years in prison followed by seven years' probation as part of a plea agreement. According to a charging affidavit, Arvizo was also a student at DeLand High School.
Andre Boren said in an interview Tuesday that he was satisfied with the plea deal.
"I got most of what I wanted," he said. "He's going to prison for a while."
He said many times prisoners serve their sentences, then violate probation and wind up back in prison.
Boren said maybe Arvizo will straighten out in prison. Maybe he won't.
"I hopefully think that he will change," Boren said. "If he doesn't, that's on him. Whether or not he'll change and be a good person or whether or not he's going to change and be a better criminal."
Arvizo, who turned 19 on Oct. 21, pleaded no contest to manslaughter in Landon Boren's death as part of the agreement during a hearing Oct. 30.
Arvizo also pleaded no contest to possession of fentanyl with intent to sale, possession of synthetic cannabinoid with intent to sell, sale of fentanyl within 1,000 feet of a place of worship, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, possession of cannabis with intent to sell, and driving with a suspended license.
Circuit Judge A. Kathleen McNeilly adjudicated Arvizo guilty and sentenced him according to the terms of the plea agreement reached between prosecutors and Arvizo's defense attorney.
Once released from prison, Arvizo must pay $3,129.54 in $50 monthly payments in restitution for the cost of Landon Boren's service and cremation.
Andre Boren said Arvizo did not make a statement during the sentencing.
Boren also said that the process moved quickly. He said he received a call from the prosecutor the day before the hearing that Arvizo might enter a plea.
Boren said he was concerned that if they went to trial, it would take only one person on the jury to feel sympathy for Arvizo and block a conviction.
He said Arvizo and his defense attorney had asked for a sentence of five years in prison followed by five years probation. But Boren said there was no way he would accept that. But he also knew that Arvizo was a juvenile when the crime was committed and did not have prior arrests.
"I knew from the get go that I wasn't going to get him to go to prison for life," he said.
Boren said he was looking at Arvizo reviewing the plea agreement before signing it.
"He was reading it, he was looking at it, I think something sank in that, you know, this is the beginning of a long, long period of time for me," Boren said.
Boren said he declined to speak at the sentencing. But he said he would have liked for the sentencing to have taken place a week or two later, so other family members who did want to speak would have had the opportunity.
But he also said it was good it was done and over with.
"It's been 15 months since my kid died, and you know, it's just, it was time to take care of it," Andre Boren said.
It was 3 p.m. on July 30, 2023, when Andre Boren walked into his son's room to check on him because he had yet to come out.
The father saw powder on his son's cellphone, a straw between his legs. He tried to wake him but it was no use.
Boren has worked death investigations for a quarter century, first as a detective at the Orlando Police Department and now as an investigator with the medical examiner's office in Seminole County.
He knew his son was gone.
He said Landon worked at the DeLand Skating Rink and wanted to be a professional boxer. Once he retired from boxing, he planned to become a pharmacist.
Arvizo was arrested the day after Landon Boren's death -- initially on drug charges and subsequently on manslaughter charges.
Boren praised the job of Volusia Sheriff's Office detectives.
"From day one, they took my son's death very seriously. They had the kid in custody the next day," he said.
The detectives put together a strong case.
"They covered all the bases," Boren said. "You know, as a homicide detective, I probably would have never got a case so tight in my time."