A 19-year-old man accused of providing a fatal dose of fentanyl to a Murrieta resident pleaded not guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder and transportation of controlled substances for sale.
Miguel Angel Gonzalez was arrested in April following a two-month investigation by the Murrieta Police Department into the death of a 22-year-old man identified in court documents only as S.D.
Gonzalez was arraigned before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jeff Zimel, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for June 4 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.
The defendant is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center.
According to Murrieta police Lt. Brendan Carney, patrol officers were sent to a residence in the 35000 block of Mitchell Road, near Clinton Keith Road, on the night of Feb. 20 to investigate reports of a possible drug overdose.
When police and paramedics reached the location, they found the victim comatose and initiated resuscitative measures, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, Carney said.
Officers discovered the 22-year-old male had ingested fentanyl and died as a result, the lieutenant said.
Detectives worked on developing leads in the case, ultimately identifying Gonzalez as the alleged supplier of the synthetic opiod, according to Carney.
The defendant was tracked to a property in the area of Redlands Boulevard and San Jacinto Avenue in Perris on the afternoon of April 25, when he was taken into custody without incident.
How Gonzalez and S.D. became acquainted was not disclosed.
Gonzalez has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
Since February 2021, almost 30 individuals countywide have been charged with murder in connection with fentanyl poisonings.
In November, prosecutors closed the books on the county’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34-year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman.
Preliminary data released by the Department of Public Health earlier this year showed there were 388 confirmed fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 23% decline from 2022, when there were 503.
Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the drug is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.
Fentanyl is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 45 years old.
