Ventura and Los Angeles County prosecutors now filing murder charges in fentanyl cases

For the first time, Ventura County's District Attorney has charged an accused fentanyl dealer with murder.

Throughout Southern California, a growing number of county prosecutors are deciding to do something that didn't used to be a typical or simple thing for local DAs to do: charge accused drug dealers with murder after someone dies. In fact, prosecutors for almost every other county in SoCal aside from Ventura have pursued such cases in fentanyl deaths or have announced plans to.

In the Ventura County case, 55-year-old Rodney Rey Yanez allegedly sold the highly potent drug to a man working at a gas station in Oxnard. The man then went inside the station's restroom and died from what the coroner determined to be a lethal level of fentanyl. Yanez was arrested Wednesday, and soon after, faced a second-degree murder charge.

According to prosecutors, Yanez also faces nine felony and four misdemeanor charges in connection with allegations of selling and distributing fentanyl in the 14 months leading up to the victim's death. 

"The filing of murder charges in a fentanyl overdose case underscores the grave responsibility we have to protect our community from the devastating impact of this deadly drug," Ventura County DA Erik Nasarenko said in a statement Thursday. "We are committed to seeking justice for victims and holding accountable those who provide this poison."

One after another, SoCal prosecutors charge dealers with murder

Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, with just two milligrams of pure fentanyl considered a potentially lethal dose. To give some perspective, a teaspoon of sugar contains 4,000 milligrams.  

"Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat the United States has ever faced, killing 38,000 Americans in the first six months of 2023 alone," reads the recent National Drug Threat Assessment from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

It's that highly potent nature that has led to more and more local prosecutors filing murder charges in fentanyl cases. Parents of those who have died are also calling for homicide charges among other harsher penalties for dealers. 

Prosecutors in the counties of San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego, and now Ventura, have all charged accused dealers in fentanyl deaths with murder. It's not clear whether Imperial County prosecutors have as they have not made any cases public and the DA's office could not be reached for comment Saturday.

In Orange County, DA Todd Spitzer announced in 2021 his office would pursue such cases. 

"These are not overdoses. These are murders," Spitzer said in a statement. "These dealers are essentially handing a loaded gun to unsuspecting victims knowing that they will probably die and they don't care."

Last August, a Riverside County jury found a fentanyl dealer guilty of homicide in what prosecutors called a landmark case. 

In that trial, Vicente David Romero was convicted of second-degree murder for selling a deadly fentanyl-laced pill to Kelsey King, 26. Prosecutors said it was the first conviction of its kind in California history.

"Today, our office has successfully provided justice to a victim's family by securing the first-ever guilty verdict by a jury in a fentanyl-related homicide trial in the state of California," Riverside County DA Mike Hestrin said at the time.

Earlier this year, the New York Times profiled Hestrin in a story about the growing trend of Southern California prosecutors charging dealers with murder. Hestrin said he was motivated by his discussions with a Temecula man whose 20-year-old daughter died from taking half a pill. 

Matt Capelouto said he found the other half of the pill in his daughter's room after she died.

Through texts, he and his wife discovered their daughter, Alexandra, thought the pill was some other prescription painkiller and split it in half. "My wife found her in her bed dead the next morning," Capelouto said.

He went directly to Hestrin to ask why criminal charges weren't being filed and why his daughter's death was considered an overdose when she had died from such a small amount. "An overdose is when you take too much of something," he said.

"We shared our story, and they agreed," Capelouto said. "They had just never really seen it explained this way."

Now, prosecutors in nearly every county in Southern California are willing to file such cases.

But it wasn't always that way.

In a first, LA County DA Gascón follows suit

Before this spring, Los Angeles County DA George Gascón had never filed murder charges in such cases. In 2021, when prosecutors in San Bernardino and Riverside counties were pursuing homicide charges against accused dealers, and Orange County had plans to, Los Angeles County prosecutors didn't have any intentions to, the Los Angeles Times reported, quoting a special advisor to Gascón.

"We have been down this road before: we know that increased penalties for drug offenses do not save lives," Alex Bastian, the DA's special advisor, told the Times. "Over the last three decades, as we increased penalties, drugs became more potent, cheaper and easier to access. We need to learn from the failed strategies of the past, in order to find solutions for the future."

But on April 8, LA County DA Gascón charged an accused fentanyl dealer with murder for the first time, according to a spokesperson for the DA's office. Two other such cases have been filed since then.

"This is a deeply tragic case illustrating the heartbreaking consequences of opioid sales in our communities," Gascón said in a June 25 statement from his office, announcing charges against a Granada Hills man. 

In a statement Friday, his office said Los Angeles County prosecutors "are committed to prosecuting those who illegally distribute fentanyl and other dangerous substances."

"Knowingly selling illegal fentanyl can amount to an act of callous disregard for human life," the DA's office statement reads.

The statement also mentions how prosecutors must prove implied malice, namely that an accused dealer knowingly dealt a substance they knew could kill someone. It's a legal requirement for pursuing murder charges in drug deaths at the county level.
 
"To file murder charges against illegal fentanyl dealers, the District Attorney's Office must first prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual's actions directly caused the victim's death, and that the dealer had the requisite intent or recklessness necessary to meet the legal standard for murder," the statement reads.

Currently, there's no state law for prosecuting those accused of dealing a drug that results in someone's death — despite the existence of such a federal law: Title 21, U.S. Code, Section 841, which carries a minimum sentence of 20 years if convicted.

Since such a statute doesn't exist at the local, or state level, prosecutors must prove implied malice, or intent, by collecting evidence such as text messages that show an accused dealer knew what they were dealing and that it could be fatal. 

In Orange County, Spitzer has said he's requesting police warn accused dealers upon arrest, leaving behind a record they knew the dangers so that if they are accused again in the future, prosecutors can use that evidence in pursuing homicide charges.