California Democrats killed drug dealer warning. It wound up in failed Prop. 47 initiative

California Democrats have repeatedly shut down bills that would warn drug dealers they could face murder charges if they sell fentanyl-laced substances that kill people.

But a version of that policy, known as Alexandra’s Law, made it into a hastily constructed ballot measure from Gov. Gavin Newsom to amend Proposition 47 — a 2014 voter-approved law that made certain drug and theft crimes misdemeanors.

The governor’s proposal was meant to compete with another measure that district attorneys successfully placed on the November ballot. But Newsom dropped his initiative the night before lawmakers were to vote on it. The Democrats’ last-minute inclusion of Alexandra’s Law frustrated proponents and cemented their support instead of the plan pushed by the district attorneys.

“The political games that they play, it’s shameful,” said Matt Capelouto, father of Alexandra Capelouto, the policy’s namesake. “This is all a game to them. It’s not about what’s right for the people. It’s really just them winning or losing.”

Alexandra’s Law failures

Democrats last year twice stopped a bill from Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, that contained Alexandra’s Law.

The policy is named after Capelouto’s daughter, a 20-year-old woman from Temecula who died in 2019 after taking half of an oxycodone pill she didn’t know contained fentanyl.

The bill would have required courts to read a warning to those convicted of certain fentanyl-related drug crimes. It would advise that they could be “charged with homicide, up to and including the crime of murder” if they sell or administer drugs in the future that kill someone, and they know or should’ve known the substance contained fentanyl.

The warning could help prosecutors establish grounds for pursuing second-degree murder charges if the person who receives the advisory is later accused of committing drug-related crimes that caused someone’s death, according to the staff analysis of the bill.

Although many senators were coauthors on Umberg’s bill, it never got out of the Senate Public Safety Committee. Members said it would not reduce overdose deaths and expressed concerns that it may sweep in people who didn’t know the substances they were selling contained fentanyl.

This year, Umberg tried to gut and amend an Assembly bill with Alexandra’s Law, which would have moved it past the Senate and into the House without having to deal with the Public Safety Committee. But leaders never assigned it to a committee.

Inclusion in Prop. 47 ballot measure

Then, just before a month-long legislative recess, Newsom and lawmakers added the policy into their potential ballot measure. The governor and legislative leaders had tried repeatedly to get the California District Attorneys Association to remove their initiative changing Proposition 47.

Their measure was meant to compete with the district attorney’s measure by making more narrow changes to Proposition 47, including a version of Alexandra’s Law.

Umberg called its inclusion a “marriage of convenience” for leaders trying to push their measure through the Capitol on short notice.

“Because it was popular, and because so many lawmakers had supported it as coauthors, that would make it more likely to pass the Legislature,” he said.

Capelouto said the proposal from the governor and lawmakers “came out of left field.”

No one involved with it initially contacted him about including the policy or using his daughter’s name, he said. Capelouto said he first heard about it from Assemblyman Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin. Patterson used the fact that no one had spoken with Capelouto to discourage people from supporting the proposal when Assembly members first discussed it in floor session.

Capelouto said he supports the measure put forward by the district attorneys, called Proposition 36, which contains a broader version of Alexandra’s Law. If that doesn’t pass, Umberg said he will keep fighting for Alexandra’s Law in the Legislature, although he doesn’t think its inclusion in Democrats’ initiative will make things any easier.

“I’ve committed to the families — those who have lost, particularly young people, to fentanyl — that I’m going to pursue this until it becomes law,” Umberg said.

The Bee Capitol Bureau’s Stephen Hobbs contributed to this story.