fentanyl – Attorney Legal Counsel

California Attorney General Bonta and San Diego leaders tackle fentanyl trafficking – NBC 7 San Diego

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 06:18:23 +0000

Leaders local to San Diego, state and federal leaders met in San Diego on Monday to discuss the effects fentanyl trafficking has on the San Diego community and how they are attacking the problem.

“Illicit fentanyl is being trafficked across our border and sold through our communities leaving unacceptable death, pain, injury and tragedy in its wake,” California attorney General Rob Bonta said.

Local leaders stressed the importance of the fight against illegal trafficking of fentanyl in San Diego County.

“One of the reasons why San Diego has taken on this fight is because we are one of the largest entry points for fentanyl for the entire nation but at the same time we have worked around the clock to be an example of how to stop this threat,” San Diego County attorney General Summer Stephan said.

Drug seizures have found large quantities of fentanyl trafficking

“So far our fentanyl seizures have included over 11 million fentanyl pills. Over 3,000 pounds of powder and just under 300 arrests,” attorney General Bonta said.

A multi-faceted approach is being taken to slow the flow of illicit fentanyl into the country, according to Rob Bonta.

While the effort is underway to tackle fentanyl trafficking, deaths have stopped climbing locally.

“So, while across the nation, we see the number increase to 77,000 in San Diego, our death rate of overdoses remained steady for the very first time to 815 people losing their lives,” Stephan said.

State leaders stress law enforcement action will evolve and continue as needed to stop illegal fentanyl trafficking.

“I’m very well aware the job is far from over and we are going to keep at it and stay aggressive,” attorney General Bonta said.

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California fentanyl crackdown lands Alpine man in jail – NBC 7 San Diego

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 09:42:23 +0000

Law enforcement officials seized more than 720,000 fentanyl pills in San Diego County last week, which were discovered inside a man’s vehicle in Alpine, the California attorney General’s Office said Wednesday.

The driver’s arrest and seizures of the drugs happened Friday as part of a joint operation conducted by federal and local law enforcement.

According to attorney General Rob Bonta’s Office, more than 150 pounds of fentanyl pills were found in the vehicle, contained in 110 packages. The packages contained blue pills with “M30” markings and the initial investigation determined the pills contained fentanyl.

The alleged driver was arrested and has been charged with transportation of a controlled substance for sale, with additional sentence-enhancing allegations regarding the weight and amount of the drugs seized.

Bonta said in a statement that it represented the largest fentanyl seizure since the Department of Justice’s partnership in 2022 between its Fentanyl Enforcement Program and the multi-agency Fentanyl Abatement & Suppression Team Task Force, which focuses on fentanyl smuggling and distribution within San Diego County.

Learn more about the impact of the fentanyl crisis on local communities in NBC 7’s in-depth project “Poison Pill: San Diego’s Battle With the Fentanyl Crisis.” Watch here.

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Man sentenced in California’s first fentanyl-related murder case

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 06:17:35 +0000

(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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Temecula man gets 15 years to life in prison in Riverside County’s 1st fentanyl-related murder case

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Sun, 05 Nov 2023 09:03:58 +0000

TEMECULA, Calif. (KABC) — In a first-of-its-kind California case, a Temecula man convicted of second-degree murder has been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the fentanyl-related death of a 26-year-old woman.

In early September, 34-year-old Vicente David Romero was found guilty in connection with the death of Kelsey King. Prosecutors said Romero knowingly supplied King with fentanyl in June 2020.

She died after ingesting half a pill while she was with him, they said.

At the time of the guilty verdict, it was the first of 23 active homicide cases in Riverside County related to fentanyl poisonings to go to trial. It was considered a landmark case in the state in which a person who knowingly supplied fentanyl was convicted of murder.

“The pain is paralyzing us some days,” said a tearful Darnel Pryor, King’s mother. “When he lied to her about the oxycodone, he took away the choice that my daughter would have had if she had known the truth, what she was really about to take, and I do not believe that she would have taken that at all.”

“He carried fentanyl with him, knowing it was poison, like a gun, he loaded it, he pulled the trigger, killing her within three minutes. She died faced down in the dirt!” said King’s father, Tim King.

During the five-day trial, the prosecution called 10 witnesses to testify and showed body camera footage in which Romero said he gave and split a pill known as a “blue” (also known as M30) with King, which he knew to contain fentanyl.

In an open plea to the court prior to the trial, Romero admitted to five additional charges, including possession of drugs while armed, being a convicted felon and drug addict in possession of a firearm, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

But what if Romero didn’t intend to kill? How could he be charged with murder? Riverside County District attorney Mike Hestrin said it’s a legal theory based on a California Supreme court case known as the People vs. Watson.

“Watson refers to a Supreme Court case that allowed for prosecutors to charge someone with murder, second-degree murder, where the individual had not intended to kill, but had done something so dangerous to human life, having the subjective knowledge of that danger,” he said.

Hestrin said with fentanyl deaths skyrocketing, something needs to change.

“We cannot say to the public, ‘We care about this. We want this to stop, but we’re not going to assign any significant consequences to someone who peddles this poison and kills someone.’ We’re hypocrites if we do that,” he said.

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As more children die from fentanyl, some prosecutors charge parents with murder

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 10:51:21 +0000

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Madison Bernard climbed into bed before dawn with her toddler, Charlotte, who was asleep next to a nightstand strewn with straws, burned tinfoil and a white powder.

Hours later, the mother woke and found her daughter struggling to breathe, according to investigators who described the scene in court documents.

After being rushed in an ambulance to a hospital, the 15-month-old girl died from a fentanyl overdose. Her mother and father, whom authorities said brought the drugs into their California home, were charged with murder and are awaiting trial.

The couple has pleaded not guilty but are part of a growing number of parents across the U.S. being charged amid an escalating opioid crisis that has claimed an increasing number of children as collateral victims.

Some 20 states have so-called “drug-induced homicide” laws, which allow prosecutors to press murder or manslaughter charges against anyone who supplies or exposes a person to drugs causing a fatal overdose. The laws are intended to target drug dealers.

In California, where the Legislature has failed to pass such laws, prosecutors in at least three counties are turning to drunk driving laws to charge parents whose children die from fentanyl overdose. It’s a unique approach that will soon be tested in court as the cases head to trial.

Supporters of the ramped-up enforcement say that by now those who use the synthetic opioid know the lethality of the drug and, like drunk drivers, they should know the consequences of exposing their children to their actions.

Critics say the parents didn’t intend to kill their children but instead made poor choices because of their addictions and are being further punished instead of being offered help.

The debate comes as the country battles with how to effectively diminish the use of the highly accessible and extremely deadly drug.

Authorities believe some of the children died after touching something with the powdery substance and then touching their eyes or mouth. In one case, the drug may have been on the hands of a parent who prepared the baby’s bottle. The drug is not absorbed into the skin but experts say it can be lethal if as little as 2 milligrams, about the weight of a mosquito, enters the body.

“These are tragic cases because drug addiction has destroyed a precious life and the parents face the consequences of their reckless actions,” said Charlie Smith, the top prosecutor in Frederick County, Maryland, and president of the National District Attorneys Association.

Parents also can face charges if young children become seriously ill or die from crack, heroin and cocaine, but such cases are rare because a sizeable amount must be ingested, Smith said.

“This is really a first in the history of our country because we have a drug on the streets that can potentially kill you instantly with a minor amount of product,” Smith said.

Prosecutors have a difficult decision to make when determining whether to charge parents, but Smith said the goal is to deter others from doing the same.

He prosecuted a case in which parents in Maryland were convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 2020 death of their 2-month-old son. The Mount Airy couple had mixed fentanyl in the same bathroom where they prepared bottles for their infant.

Jeremy Whitney Frazier and Heather Marie Frazier were each sentenced in December to five years in prison and five years of supervised probation.

The National District Attorneys Association doesn’t track how many parents have been charged for exposing their children to fentanyl, but news reports and interviews with prosecutors show such cases have been on the rise since the onset of the pandemic.

Last month, a Maine woman pleaded guilty to manslaughter after her 14-month-old son’s fentanyl overdose. Investigators found fentanyl on a blanket and sheet where Ashley Malloy’s son Karson had been sleeping.

States such as Maryland that don’t have “drug-induced homicide” laws often charge parents with manslaughter, Smith said.

In California, prosecutors have turned to a drunk driving law.

Prosecutors in Riverside, Sonoma and Stanislaus counties have charged parents with murder based on the “Watson advisement,” a formal statement signed by anyone convicted of a DUI charge who says they understand driving under the influence can injure or kill people. The statement can be used against them if they cause another fatal, DUI-related crash.

“I’ve been a prosecutor 25 years now and I can’t recall any other drug that has led to this much destruction and death,” Riverside County Deputy District attorney Daima Calhoun said.

Prosecutors say the parents, like drunk drivers, knew fentanyl can injure or kill people.

Among those awaiting a trial that will test the approach are Tehra Alexandra Waite and Collin Pascal Kittrell, both of Riverside. The boyfriend and girlfriend were charged with murder after their toddler died of a fentanyl overdose in June 2020. They pleaded not guilty.

Investigators said their 14-month-old daughter, Allison, likely touched her mouth or eyes after coming in contact with the drug, which was found on several things in their apartment, including the couch.

Detectives testified that when Waite found her daughter unresponsive she rushed to a pharmacy to buy naloxone, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose. The couple did not call 911 until hours later when Allison started having trouble breathing.

The girl’s paternal grandmother also said in court documents that Waite used drugs while she was pregnant.

The Associated Press sought comment from multiple attorneys who have represented Waite and none responded. Her father declined to comment.

Kittrell’s attorney, Graham Donath, said Allison’s father did not intend for his child to die and the charge should be one of child neglect, not murder. But prosecutors don’t like to go that route because the maximum sentence for the offense is 12 years.

In Sonoma County, where Charlotte slept with her mom in a messy apartment in Santa Rosa, first responders testified at a preliminary hearing that they found fentanyl in powder form on a nightstand next to the bed.

Ryan Hughes, a Santa Rosa Police Department narcotics detective, told the court they also found text messages showing the couple was concerned about losing their daughter because of their drug use, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

A judge is expected to set a trial date at a Sept. 11 hearing for Charlotte’s mother, Bernard, who woke up to find her daughter struggling to breathe, and her father, Evan Frostick.

Defense attorneys for Bernard and Frostick and Frostick’s parents all declined to comment when contacted by the AP. Bernard’s stepmother did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.

“They need to be held accountable under the law because they allowed harm to come to their children and they let their drug use and addiction outweigh taking care of their children and keeping their children safe,” Sonoma County District attorney Carla Rodriguez said.

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