Man admits to supplying deadly dose of fentanyl to San Jacinto resident
A 26-year-old San Jacinto man who supplied a fatal dose of fentanyl to an acquaintance pleaded guilty today to voluntary manslaughter.
Samuel Leo Mussaw admitted the felony count, as well as a charge of possession of controlled substances for sale, under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. In exchange for his admissions, prosecutors dropped a second-degree murder charge against Mussaw.
Superior Court Judge Jorge Hernandez scheduled a sentencing hearing for Feb. 13 at the Banning Justice Center. The indicated term of imprisonment under the plea deal is 12 years in state prison.
Mussaw is being held without bail at the Benoit Detention Center in Indio.
He provided a quantity of fentanyl that claimed the life of 23-year-old Adam Young on March 4, 2021. According to Sgt. Rick Espinoza of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, deputies and paramedics were called to the 900 block of Cypress Drive, near Malaga Drive, that afternoon to investigate a possible drug overdose. Espinoza said Young was found unconscious and unresponsive in his house, and first responders tried but failed to revive him.
Further investigation revealed the victim had consumed pills containing fentanyl, and detectives were able to track down the alleged source -- Mussaw -- according to the sergeant. The defendant and victim knew one another, but no other details were released.
Espinoza said a search warrant was served at Mussaw's residence in the 100 block of North Dillon Road, where three firearms, a stash of cash "and approximately 2,000 M-30 pills of fentanyl'' were seized. He was taken into custody without a struggle.
More than two dozen people have been charged with murder in fentanyl- related cases countywide.
In November, the District Attorney's Office closed the books on its first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34-year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced in November to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman.
According to public safety officials, there were 503 confirmed fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2022, compared to just under 400 in 2021, a 200-fold increase from 2016, when there were only two. Statistics for 2023 haven't been released.
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.
