18-year-old charged with murder in teen's fentanyl overdose death in San Bernardino County

Noah Goldberg
·2 min read
FILE - This undated file photo provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Phoenix Division shows a closeup of fentanyl-laced sky blue pills. Police in small city on the U.S.-Mexico border say three students have been arrested for possessing fentanyl pills on campus, including one who had over 3,000 pills with her. San Luis, Arizona, police say two 18-year-old girls and a 16-year-old boy were arrested Wednesday, June 5, 2019 after an on-campus officer found them with pills. (Drug Enforcement Administration via AP, File)
An undated photo of fentanyl-laced sky blue pills. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration)

An 18-year-old has been charged with murder in San Bernardino County for allegedly selling the opioids that led to another teen's overdose death, prosecutors said.

Alfred Urrea of Bloomington pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $1-million bail Monday. His charges stem from the Aug. 23 death of Adrian Alloway of Victorville, who died from an overdose on fentanyl.

Alloway died a day after he turned 18, according to family members.

Urrea's case is the second time prosecutors in San Bernardino County have pressed murder charges in an opioid overdose.

"In cases such as this, where murder is alleged, we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the dealer knowingly understood the dangers of fentanyl, and still chose profits over human life when supplying drugs to the victim," county Dist. Atty. Jason Anderson said in a statement.

Urrea was due back in court Tuesday.

Two teens were charged in Los Angeles earlier this month after 15-year-old Melanie Ramos died of an overdose from what authorities believe was fentanyl in the bathroom at Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood. One of the two boys was charged with manslaughter for allegedly selling Ramos and her friend the drugs that led to Ramos' overdose, according to prosecutors.

The L.A. County Department of Public Health released an alert after Ramos' death informing residents that fentanyl was identified in more than three quarters of adolescent overdose deaths nationally. Data from 2015 showed that more than 80% of drug overdose deaths among adolescents ages 15 to 19 were unintentional, the alert added.

The Los Angeles Unified School District stocked 1,400 elementary, middle and high schools with the overdose reversal drug Naloxone following Ramos' death and nine total overdoses among students in recent weeks.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.