Trial Set In Temecula Woman's Fentanyl Death: Court

TEMECULA, CA — The trial for a 22- year-old Riverside man accused of supplying a lethal dose of fentanyl to a young Temecula woman will take place in May, officials reported Wednesday.

Last month, Brandon Michael McDowell of San Bernardino was indicted on one count of distributing fentanyl resulting in the death of 20-year-old Alexandra Capelouto of Temecula. Her death has been under investigation for two years.

Acting on a request from prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal ordered that trial proceedings begin in mid-May at the federal courthouse in downtown Riverside, providing the government sufficient time to procure and share discovery evidence with the defense.

Last week, McDowell was granted a bond reduction, from $200,000 to $100,000, enabling him to be released from custody.

A woman— identified as Michelle McCarthy, whose relationship to McDowell was not disclosed in court documents— covered the bond obligation, offering her house on Larkspur Drive in San Bernardino as security for his release.

McDowell faces a minimum 20-year sentence if convicted and a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Read also: Young Temecula Woman's Fentanyl Death Leads To Arrest

Prosecutors said that on Dec. 22, 2019, Capelouto, a student at Arizona State University, was home for the holidays and contacted the defendant via Snapchat to order Oxycodone. The prescription medication is generally provided for chronic pain relief.

McDowell is accused of selling the Temecula woman an undisclosed quantity of "counterfeit Oxycodone M30 pills," according to a U.S. Attorney's Office statement.

Investigators believe she crushed at least one of the pills and consumed the drug shortly before succumbing to the powerful opioid in the pills, according to the agency.

Capelouto's father, Matt Capelouto, has called his daughter's death "fentanyl poisoning," saying she did not realize she was ingesting the deadly substance. In a news briefing earlier this month, he tearfully recalled that his daughter "did not want to die."

The Capelouto case prompted Sen. Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, to introduce Senate Bill 350, which was rejected twice by the Democrat majority in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

The legislation would have mandated that under state law, anyone convicted of dealing fentanyl or other potentially deadly drugs be issued a written warning that a death resulting from furnishing such drugs in the future could result in the party being prosecuted for murder.

However, some county prosecutors, including Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin and Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, have pursued second-degree murder charges against dealers who allegedly sold lethal doses of fentanyl anyway. Ten individuals in Riverside County have been charged in connection with fentanyl-traced fatalities.

Fentanyl is manufactured in China and smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border. Hestrin said, "profit and greed" have led drug cartels to transport it across the border, where law enforcement is "not getting any help" to stem the tide.
"We're overwhelmed," he said during the briefing with Capelouto.

The synthetic opioid is known to be 80-100 times more potent than morphine and is a popular additive, seamlessly mixed into any number of narcotics and pharmaceuticals. According to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, there were about 500 fentanyl-induced deaths countywide last year, which would represent a 250-fold increase from 2016, when only two such fatalities were documented.

City News Service, Patch Staffer Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.

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Young Temecula Woman's Fentanyl Death Leads To Arrest