California – A California man becomes the first in the nation to be convicted of murder by giving someone a lethal dose of fentanyl. There are currently about two dozen such cases on the books to be prosecuted in the state.
“In Riverside County, 34-year-old Vicente David Romero was sentenced on Friday to 15 years to life in prison after being found guilty of second-degree murder. Romero was convicted of murdering 26-year-old Kelsey King in June of 2020 in the city of Temecula, about 85 miles south of Los Angeles. During the trial, Romero admitted to giving King a “split” pill that he knew contained fentanyl. King later overdosed and died on the synthetic opioid, which experts say is over 50 times stronger than heroin.”
Mike Hestrin, Riverside County District Attorney said, “Drug-induced homicide is homicide.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl more than tripled from 2016 to 2021. During that period, more people died from fentanyl overdoses than from meth, heroin, or cocaine.
