RIVERSIDE, CA — A Moreno Valley woman was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison Friday after being convicted of second-degree murder for supplying a fatal dose of fentanyl to a local man.
Savanna Michelle Carlos, 23, was sentenced following a jury trial in which jurors deliberated for just over two hours before returning a guilty verdict.
The victim, identified as Jesse Jimenez, 27, was found dead in early 2023 in his bedroom from fentanyl poisoning. Investigators recovered a partially burned fentanyl pill and Jimenez's cellphone at the scene, which proved critical to tracing the drug transaction, prosecutors said.
Digital evidence—including search warrants, cellphone extractions, social media records, and financial transactions—showed Jimenez spent hours contacting various people to obtain fentanyl. Carlos was the only individual who agreed to deliver the narcotics directly to his home, according to prosecutors.
Text messages showed that approximately 30 minutes after Carlos delivered the drugs, Jimenez texted someone stating he was smoking the fentanyl. Hours later, his mother discovered him deceased.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence showing Carlos was well aware of the drug's lethal nature. Months prior to Jimenez's death, Carlos was present during a separate fentanyl overdose where she performed CPR on a victim and was explicitly warned by law enforcement about the dangers of the synthetic opioid.
Despite the police warning, Carlos continued to sell fentanyl, including the transaction that killed Jimenez. Evidence presented in court also demonstrated that she continued trafficking the drug even after learning of Jimenez's death.
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