YOLO COUNTY, Calif. — Fentanyl, which is often mixed into or sold as other drugs, is killing thousands of people.
Many young lives in the Sacramento area have been cut short by the highly synthetic opioid. Yolo County is one county where investigators are trying to hold people accountable.
On June 17, 2021, the Yolo County District Attorney issued this statement:
The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office will now require, with any plea agreement involving narcotics trafficking, that the prosecutor formally advise defendants that they could face homicide charges if they later provide drugs to a person who dies of a fentanyl overdose.
For Yolo County families like Kristy Lee, it’s been a nightmare.
“He thought he was taking a Percocet, and in fact, a coroner’s report showed that it was 100% fentanyl,” said Lee.
After Jake Lee died of an overdose in 2021, his mother Kristy made it her mission to ensure her son’s death is not in vain.
“It’s every parent’s worst nightmare, and there’s a reason it’s considered every parent’s worst nightmare. My family’s life is changed forever. He was such a bright light. He was so funny and really on a very good path. He was getting ready to get his undergraduate degree in English. He was living on his own, doing well living on his own, very well liked, had tons of friends and then this,” said Lee.
Jake Lee’s death helped change the game for Yolo County law enforcement and prosecutors, like Preston Schaub with the district attorney's office.
“Prior to her son's death, as well as the other victims of fentanyl poisoning around that time, we would treat those cases just like any other medical overdose, an accidental death. Now, we treat them like crime scenes. We create a forensic perimeter, we obtain all the physical evidence we can. We obtain cell phones, we write search warrants for those phones, we write search warrants for social media. We treat it just like any other serious felony crime,” said Schaub.
However, not one felony second degree murder charge has been brought against a fentanyl supplier in Yolo County since the change. They were preparing to charge one suspected supplier, but the defendant overdosed.
“It's not like our standard second degree murder charge. And so, we want to make sure we do it right. Because like anything else in law enforcement, if we abuse a tool, it gets taken away from us,” said Schaub.
Yolo County Public Health Officer Aimee Sisson points out a flaw for them when dealing with fentanyl. If officials solely rely on the state’s overdose and fentanyl data, then for Jake Lee, his death would just now be appearing in their system.
“Right now, the California Department of Public Health in 2023 is only reporting data through 2021 on its opioid dashboard. So, if you're relying on the state data and their analysis to look at opioid and fentanyl overdoses, then we're two years behind,” said Sisson.
“If you don't know where those overdoses are happening in real time, then you don't have that opportunity to intervene,” said Sisson.
It is one of many flaws.
The process starts with a county coroner filling out a death certificate. That goes to the National Center for Public Health Statistics. It then takes two years for the data to come back to the county, if one of death certificate lines says fentanyl.
“If they use the word opioid or opiate and did not specify fentanyl or if the person filling it out just didn't include that level of detail, even though they had it, then it would not be classified as a fentanyl death,” said Sisson.
The White House has also taken notice. The federal government now has a non-fatal overdose dashboard.
Jake Lee’s mom has one final plea.
“Just keep our eyes open and be aware, the problem exists. Don’t think my family, my situation, it can’t happen to me because it can and everybody needs to be aware of that,” said Lee.
Kristy Lee never got justice for her son’s death. The case is closed and Yolo County is no longer investigating. However, she’s not looking for one person to be behind bars. She wants one united movement for prevention and education. She now sits on the Yolo County Opioid Advisory Team.
Yolo County has been working to speed up their fentanyl detection by trying to get real time data. They are now having law enforcement alert them of cases and having the county coroner send them a copy of the death certificates directly.
However, only a few dealers in the region have been charged.
Last month, Napa County announced they were charging two people with murder in connection to fentanyl sales.
In Placer County, they are currently pursuing murder charges.
Placer County also has a man currently serving 17 years on manslaughter charges regarding the fentanyl death of local Rocklin teen Zachary Didier.
The ABC10 digital team has been tracking deaths across multiple counties, look for your county HERE.
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