Man Pleads Guilty In San Joaquin County Fentanyl Overdose Of Navy Service Member
STOCKTON (CBS13) — A man was sentenced to prison Friday after pleading guilty to selling fentanyl to a Navy service member who overdosed while on leave last year.
District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said 23-year-old Francisco Jimenez was sentenced to four years and four months in prison. He was charged with manslaughter after selling illegal drugs to a man who subsequently overdosed and died.
According to court records, Jimenez sold 10 pills to a 25-year-old man who was visiting Tracy with a friend while on leave from the U.S. Navy on or around Dec. 29, 2019.
The victim took the pills at a Motel 6 in Tracy and was eventually hospitalized, dying on Jan. 2, 2020. His cause of death was fentanyl overdose, according to court records.
Court records reveal that Jimenez had been buying and selling "percocets" or "M-30s" since late 2019. At the time he sold the pills to the victim, police found Jimenez knew another customer had overdosed from the same batch. Officials say Jimenez had also gotten sick from part of a pill from the contaminated batch.
In a victim impact statement, the victim's mother wrote, "I am not here to condemn Mr. Jimenez or request that he be punished to the fullest for his actions. The only thing that I would like to accomplish through writing this Victim Statement is to help him understand that his actions affected more than just my son. The loss of my son affected his parents, his brothers, his extended family, and all those who knew him."
She said her son had hopes of becoming an electrical engineer one day.