Crime & Safety
Winchester Man Facing Murder Charge In Fentanyl Death
Justin Kail is suspected of selling fentanyl to Ernie Gutierrez, 27, who died as a result of taking the drug, according to investigators.
WINCHESTER, CA — A Winchester man has been booked into county jail on suspicion of murder after sheriff's investigators determined he sold fentanyl to a buyer who died as a result of the drug.
Justin Lee Kail, 31, was booked into Southwest Detention Center Friday morning following his 8:45 a.m. arrest on Florence Court in French Valley. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, according to jail records.
Kail is suspected of selling fentanyl to 27-year-old Ernie Gutierrez. Around 6 p.m. Aug. 24, deputies found Gutierrez dead in the 30000 block of Benton Street in Winchester.
"It was determined the decedent ... was a victim of homicide due to a fentanyl overdose," the Riverside County Sheriff's Department reported on Friday.
Investigators worked for months to gather enough evidence against Kail to make an arrest that would support a homicide charge, according to the department. The details of the investigation were not released.
Kail is not the first Riverside County resident to be accused of murder in a fentanyl death. In February 2021, the Riverside County District Attorney's Office announced it had filed its first-ever second-degree murder charge against a fentanyl supplier. Since then, about a dozen people countywide are facing second-degree murder charges in fentanyl-related death cases.
Prosecuting an overdose or drug-poisoning death as murder is not easy, according to the DA's office. Prosecutors must prove a defendant is guilty of selling fentanyl and that he or she had "specific knowledge" of the synthetic opioid's dangers.
The cases are similar to legal precedence used when pursuing a second-degree murder charge against a DUI driver who ends up killing someone in a crash.
If Kail is formally charged and subsequently convicted on one count of second-degree murder, he faces 15 years to life in prison.
The sheriff's department and the DA's office report that fentanyl deaths have skyrocketed in the county and across the nation. In 2016, two people died from fentanyl poisoning countywide, according to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Last fall, officials said the 2021 fentanyl death toll would likely surpass 500 countywide.
A search of court records found no prior convictions for Kail in Riverside County.
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