(NewsNation) — In a first for the state of California, a man was convicted of murder for giving someone a lethal dose of fentanyl.
It’s the first of about two dozen active fentanyl-related homicide cases in Riverside County to go to trial.
American communities ravaged by the opioid epidemic are taking action to fight what many experts say is the deadliest drug in the country today: Fentanyl.
Florida school district to launch fentanyl awareness campaign
It only takes a small amount of fentanyl to kill, just a speck next to a penny for perspective.
California officials are starting to prosecute some fentanyl-related overdoses as homicides.
In Riverside County, 34-year-old Vicente David Romero was sentenced on Friday to 15 years to life in prison after being found guilty of second-degree murder.
Romero was convicted of murdering 26-year-old Kelsey King in June of 2020 in the city of Temecula, about 85 miles south of Los Angeles.
During the trial, Romero admitted to giving King a “split” pill that he knew contained fentanyl.
King later overdosed and died on the synthetic opioid, which experts say is over 50 times stronger than heroin.
During the trial, King’s father said: “How do I tell her children that ‘your mother is dead because of a worthless piece of “blank” wanted to have sex with her and slipped her poison that killed her within three minutes.”
Riverside County District attorney Mike Hestrin said, “Drug-induced homicide is homicide.”
“Today’s sentencing not only reflects the gravity of what happened to Kelsey King, but what continues to happen to so many men and women in our community,” Hestrin continued.
The barrage of overdoses also spurred the city of San Francisco to recently announce a law enforcement task force that could result in murder charges for drug dealers who sell substances that result in a person’s death. That task force is set to be operational in 2024.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl more than tripled from 2016 to 2021. During that period, more people died from fentanyl overdoses than from meth, heroin, or cocaine.
Romero’s case is the first of 25 active fentanyl-related homicide cases to go to trial in Riverside County, according to the Riverside County District attorney’s Office.
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