SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A woman accused of felony child endangerment is going to trial after a 15-year-old in her care died of a fentanyl overdose.
ABC10 was in the courtroom Thursday morning as Stephanie Buggs and her attorney told the judge they’re opting to take their case to trial.
Buggs is accused of giving half a pain pill to her daughter’s 15-year-old girlfriend, Kamaria Evans, to alleviate period cramps in 2020. The pill contained a deadly dose of fentanyl.
ABC10 spoke with Kamaria’s father-figure, Jef Dawkins, who raised her and wants to see justice – as well as spread awareness about the fentanyl crisis.
“Best outcome would be getting (Buggs) the maximum penalty possible and then hopefully she can learn from that,” Dawkins said. “Hopefully if (the case) gets enough notoriety, we can make people aware of the epidemic that is fentanyl that nobody seems to care about, because we're losing kids, friends, moms, dads, brothers, sisters."
He says he is not happy the case is being dragged out into a trial.
“I’d like it to be over, but if this is what we’ve got to do, this is what we’ve got to do,” he said. “Kamaria’s not the end of the fight for this. That’s my first fight, and then after that, we’ve got a whole war that we have to tackle [referring to the fentanyl epidemic]."
ABC10 spoke with Buggs’ attorney, who declined to comment.
The trial is set to begin Jan. 22, 2024, at 8:45 a.m. in Dept. 9 of Sacramento Superior Court. Prior to that, a Trial Readiness Conference is set for Jan. 10 at 1:35 p.m. in Dept. 62.
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