When Esther Lopez went to her son’s bedroom to check if he was hungry, she found him slumped over on a table, cold to the touch.
She called 911 and paramedics rushed to the Moreno Valley home and started CPR, according to court documents. But it was too late. Jesse Jimenez was dead of a fentanyl overdose at 27.
On Friday, the woman who supplied him the lethal dose, 23-year-old Savanna Michelle Carlos, was sentenced to 15 years to life after a jury found her guilty of second-degree murder.
Riverside County Sheriff’s Office detectives recovered a burned fentanyl pill, tin foil and a cellphone from Jimenez’s bedroom after he died on Feb. 2, 2023, according to court documents. By examining his messages and other evidence, they determined that Carlos had provided him with fentanyl after he reached out to multiple dealers seeking the drug.
“Why couldn’t she just say no? She’s an evil person,” Lopez wrote in a statement presented at Carlos’ sentencing hearing. “A friend will pick you up when you fall, not kill you.”
Detectives also uncovered evidence that Carlos was well aware of the dangers of fentanyl, as she was present when another person was poisoned by the drug several months earlier.
On July 30, 2022, Riverside County sheriff’s deputies responding to a reported overdose found Carlos performing CPR on an unconscious man. At that time, she received a clear warning from law enforcement about fentanyl, according to court documents.
Nonetheless, she continued to sell the drug, including the dose that ultimately killed Jimenez, prosecutors said.
By analyzing social media, phone and financial records, detectives found that she even continued to sell the narcotic after she knew Jimenez had fatally overdosed, according to court documents.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Seth DuMouchel said that Carlos’ behavior demonstrates that she presents an ongoing danger to the community.
“My hope is that the court understands Jesse was more than a victim,” Jimenez’s niece, who did not wish to be named, wrote in an impact statement. “He was a son, a brother, an uncle, a family member and a friend. He was deeply loved, he is deeply missed.”
Filing murder charges against people who provide lethal doses of fentanyl is relatively new in California. Riverside County has embraced the approach in hopes of disrupting the drug trade and preventing overdoses.
In 2023, the Riverside County district attorney’s office achieved a guilty verdict in the state’s first fentanyl-related homicide jury trial, which also resulted in a sentence of 15 years to life. Since 2021, the county has filed murder charges in 44 fentanyl overdose cases and secured convictions in 29, according to an online dashboard.
Part of the success is due to new legal developments, including a voter-approved measure requiring courts to provide defendants with a clear warning of the dangers of fentanyl when they are convicted of selling or transporting the drug.
This makes it easier for prosecutors to then pursue second-degree murder charges if the same person later sells a lethal dose, as they can prove the person was aware of the risk.
Prosecutors have also had luck securing convictions by working with the Department of Justice to file federal charges for distributing fentanyl that later results in death. Such offenses can carry a minimum sentence of 20 years to life.
