Fentanyl killed a SLO County man. Now his suspected dealer has been charged with murder

Chloe Jones
·2 min read
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A San Luis Obispo woman has been arrested and charged with murder after she allegedly sold fentanyl to a Templeton man who overdosed and died in October, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release on Tuesday.

Deputies found 31-year-old Quinn Alister Hall’s body behind the old County Animal Services building on Oklahoma Avenue in San Luis Obispo on Oct. 27, according to a news release from the SLO County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives discovered that, shortly before his death, Hall bought fentanyl from 50-year-old Brandi Turner, who was a resident of the Oklahoma Avenue Safe Parking at the time, the District Attorney’s Office said. The sale occurred Oct. 26 — the day before Hall’s body was found — the DA’s Office said.

That fentanyl was responsible for Hall’s death, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Hall, who had been convicted of dealing drugs himself, was sentenced to six months in jail in 2012 after he pleaded no contest to three charges of selling mephedrone to two 15-year-olds in 2010.

Turner was arrested Monday by the Sheriff’s Office. She was charged with murder, sale of the fentanyl that lead to Hall’s death and possession of fentanyl intended for sale for drugs found in her motorhome on Nov. 9.

Turner was in custody at San Luis Obispo County Jail with a $2 million bail as of Tuesday evening, according to the sheriff’s online database, but the District Attorney’s Office said she is being held without bail.

Turner has made her first court appearance, the District Attorney’s Office said, but has not entered a plea to the charges. Her arraignment will take place May 23.

The Sheriff’s Office said this case will be the first in San Luis Obispo County in which a fentanyl death will be prosecuted as a homicide.

The District Attorney’s Office charged Timothy Clark Wolfe with second-degree murder in May 2020 for selling drugs laced with fentanyl that caused the death of 19-year-old Atascadero resident Emilio Velci, but that case was transferred to the federal court system.

The investigation into the case is ongoing, the Sheriff’s Office said. The agency asks anyone with information to contact the Sheriff’s Detective Division at 805-781-4500.