MURRIETA – A convicted felon who provided a fatal dose of fentanyl to a 26-year-old Temecula woman was sentenced today to 15 years to life in state prison, closing the books on Riverside County’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury.
A Murrieta jury in August convicted 34-year-old Vicente David Romero of second-degree murder, possession of controlled substances while armed, being a felon in possession of a loaded gun and possession of drug paraphernalia for the 2020 death of Kelsey King.
“Drug-induced homicide is homicide,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin said after the sentence was handed down at the Southwest Justice Center. “The 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 because of the skyrocketing rates of illicit fentanyl sales.”
“Our office is prosecuting the largest volume of fentanyl-related homicides in the state because we firmly believe those who knowingly endanger the lives of others must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
The D.A.’s office touted the case as a “milestone” for California, saying it’s the first statewide in which a defendant was found guilty and sentenced for murder due to a fentanyl poisoning.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Freer remarked during the sentencing hearing that the trial and verdict in Romero’s case signal the D.A.’s office means business and will “aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals for furnishing fentanyl causing death.”
“That should be abundantly clear,” the judge said. “They will seek murder charges. They will obtain convictions.”
There are 25 defendants who have been charged with murder in fentanyl-related deaths countywide.
The defendant and King were acquaintances, and according to the prosecution’s trial brief, the two ran into each other in Temecula on June 16, 2020, both seeking to get high on drugs.
On the day of the meeting, Romero had multiple fentanyl-laced M-30 pills, known on the street as “blues,” in his backpack.
He later admitted during an interview with detectives that he and King went to a spot on Jefferson Avenue, underneath Interstate 15, where he crushed one of the pills and used a straw to snort the contents, according to the brief.
“King then snorted the other half of the pill,” the brief said.
“The defendant … then remembered that he started sweating and feeling funny. He checked his phone camera to look at his face. That was the last thing that the defendant claimed he remembered before passing out.”
Romero awoke hours later to find King unconscious, laying face down with her buttocks in the air, prosecutors said.
“The defendant remembered King being cold to the touch when he tried to wake her up,” according to the narrative.
He walked to a Chevron gas station several blocks away on Rancho California Road and asked the attendant to call 911, then began vomiting uncontrollably, court papers said.
Deputies went to the station and questioned Romero. After confirming he was a probationer, they searched his backpack and discovered a loaded handgun, as well as five “blues,” according to the brief.
Romero told them about King, pointing out where he had left her. A patrol unit went to the location, and a deputy discovered the woman dead.
A Riverside County Coroner’s Office autopsy on King determined her cause of death stemmed from the “effects of methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl,” court papers said.
While speaking with detectives, Romero acknowledged that King’s death “is on me because I gave her the pills,” according to the brief.
Court documents show Romero has prior convictions for assault, unlawful intercourse with a minor and burglary.
According to public safety officials, there were 503 confirmed fentanyl-related fatalities countywide last year, compared to just under 400 in 2021, a 200-fold increase from 2016, when there were only two.
Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the synthetic opioid is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.
The drug 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 now the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 45 years old.
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