Young Temecula Woman's Fentanyl Death Leads To Arrest

TEMECULA, CA — After a two-year battle, a Temecula family who lost their daughter to fentanyl poisoning saw the arrest Friday of the man who allegedly sold the young woman counterfeit oxycodone laced with the deadly substance.

Brandon Michael McDowell, 22, of Riverside was taken into custody without incident following the investigation into the 2019 death of 20-year-old Alexandra Capelouto.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday charging McDowell with one count of distributing fentanyl resulting in death, which carries a minimum 20-year sentence, up to life in prison without the possibility of parole, if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

McDowell is being held without bail and was slated to make his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Riverside Friday afternoon.

According to prosecutors, 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, a prescription medication generally provided for relief of chronic pain.

McDowell allegedly sold the victim an undisclosed quantity of "counterfeit oxycodone M30 pills," according to a U.S. Attorney's Office statement.

Investigators believe she ingested the powerful opioid in the pills and died, the agency stated.

Capelouto's father, Matt Capelouto, has publicly stated his daughter did not realize she was ingesting fentanyl-laced pills.

"This is another incredibly sad case that demonstrates the deadly threat of fentanyl that is now seen in a wide array of drugs sold on the street," U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Tracy Wilkison said. "My office and our law enforcement partners will continue to investigate fatal overdose cases to identify and bring to justice every individual involved in the trafficking of fentanyl."

The Capelouto case has generated wide publicity and prompted Sen. Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, earlier this year to introduce Senate Bill 350. The bill, which failed in committee, would have mandated that under state law, anyone convicted of dealing fentanyl or other potentially deadly drugs be issued a written warning that an overdose death resulting from providing such drugs in the future could result in the party being prosecuted for murder.

The intention was to facilitate prosecutors' efforts to file murder charges against dealers. However, some county prosecutors, including Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin, are pursuing second-degree murder charges against dealers who allegedly sell lethal doses of fentanyl anyway. Nearly a dozen individuals countywide have been charged with murder in connection with fentanyl-traced fatalities.

Last month, Matt Capelouto and Hestrin were on hand when Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced his office would pursue murder charges against drug dealers who peddle deadly substances that kill unsuspecting victims.

The McDowell case was investigated by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, along with Riverside County sheriff's detectives and personnel from U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

Fentanyl is manufactured in China and smuggled across the Mexican border, according to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. It is known to be 80-100 times more potent than morphine and is a popular additive, seamlessly mixed into any number of narcotics, pharmaceuticals, or even mixed with filler.

Bianco and Hestrin announced earlier this year that they would be taking a hard line on fentanyl deaths, charging murder whenever circumstances warrant and the evidence is unmistakable.

Hestrin told the Board of Supervisors over the summer that the county was on pace to document 500 fentanyl deaths this year. The number of fatalities has doubled every year since 2015, and in that time, there has been an overall 800 percent rise in fentanyl-related overdose deaths, according to public safety officials.

The prosecutor handling the McDowell matter is a deputy district attorney for Riverside County, given special assignment as an assistant U.S. attorney.

Background information on the defendant was not available.