Jurors deadlock in trial of Cathedral City man accused of contributing to fentanyl death
INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) - Prosecutors intend to retry a man for voluntary manslaughter after a jury deadlocked on whether to convict him for allegedly helping a 22-year-old Rancho Mirage resident obtain the fentanyl that killed him.
The Indio jury weighing the fate of Riley Jacob Hagar, 28, of Cathedral City acquitted him Tuesday of murder but then informed Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos that deliberations had hit an impasse on whether to find Hagar guilty of the lesser and included count of manslaughter.
The judge declared jurors hopelessly deadlocked and dismissed them, after which the Riverside County District Attorney's Office confirmed plans to move ahead with a retrial on the manslaughter allegation. A retrial status conference is set for April 28 at the Larson Justice Center.
The defendant is being held in lieu of $30,000 at the Benoit Detention Center.
He is accused in the death of Travis O'Brien on New Year's Day 2022.
"Mr. Hagar is the connect. He is the plug,'' Deputy District Attorney Steve Sorensen told jurors earlier this month. "Hagar told Travis the date, the location and other information for how to acquire the (fentanyl- packed) pills."
The prosecutor said O'Brien ``went to the person he knew could facilitate (the sale of the drugs)'' -- Hagar.
Arrangements were made for O'Brien to procure the fentanyl pills so that he could sell them to someone else at a profit, according to the prosecution. But in addition to selling the hundreds of M30 ``blues,'' O'Brien consumed several of the synthetic opiods, investigators alleged.
The young man checked into Room 149 at the Motel 6 in the 69000 block of Highway 111 in Rancho Mirage, where he intended to stay on Jan. 1, 2022, according to trial testimony. He was found dead there that afternoon.
"(Hagar) deliberately acted with conscious disregard to human life. He didn't care,'' Sorensen said.
The prosecutor asserted that the defendant was the conduit for the fentanyl acquisition, and hence bears responsibility for O'Brien's death from "acute fentanyl intoxication."
But defense attorney Ryan Markson rejected the prosecution's interpretation of what happened, insisting Hagar wasn't the one who directly provided the fentanyl and had no idea of the lethality of the particular pills that the victim ingested.
"This is the real thing. It's as real as it gets,'' Markson told the jury. ``Accountability is at the essence of the justice system. O'Brien caused his own death.''
He asked jurors whether there was anything fair about trying to make his client ``accountable for Travis' death?''
The attorney reminded jurors that O'Brien contacted Hagar, and that the latter ``wasn't in the business of selling fentanyl,'' but didn't want to ignore the request for help setting up a transaction.
``My client is guilty of poor judgment, not murder,'' Markson said.
Hagar was arrested in August 2022, following a months-long investigation by the sheriff's Overdose Death Investigations Unit. He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
Since February 2021, prosecutors have charged more than three dozen people in connection with fentanyl poisonings. Two prosecutions have resulted in murder convictions.
Preliminary health statistics indicated there were 229 suspected fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2025, compared to 351 confirmed poisonings in 2024, a roughly 40% decline.
Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the opioid is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.
It's 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a recipient knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.
