Lawyer says Temecula murder defendant was a fentanyl addict, not a trafficker – Orange County Register

Kiaree Burns has been battling drug addiction since the age of 12 and fentanyl addiction since 2020.

He often used cheap synthetic opium with his friend Arianna Jackson. Burns’ attorney, Paul Leonidas Lin, said the two often grade each other’s drugs, often from the same dealer, and often use drugs together and “lie,” a term that refers to the color of the drug. fentanyl pills, Burns’ attorney, Paul Leonidas Lin, said.

But on January 10, 2021, their luck ran out. Jackson, 22, was found dead of a fentanyl overdose at her home in Temecula, collapsed on the bathtub. A pink straw was found in her left hand and a piece of burnt aluminum foil and a lighter lay on the floor next to her body.

On Jackson’s cell phone, sheriff’s investigators found a string of text messages indicating Burns, also of Temecula, was the last person she had contact with. The two discuss Burns choosing fentanyl for Jackson.

Then, Burns, 25, was charged with murder on October 8, 2021, and he’s still wondering why, Lin said.

Lin said: “It just confuses me that he is being charged in this case. “Murder is the harshest crime in the book. You’re not going to arbitrarily accuse people of that. I don’t think anyone should be charged with this. There are too many variables. This is a case of two addicts making the wrong choices. If anyone is to blame, it is the bookie who continues to raise their addicts.”

At the request of prosecutors, a judge denied Burns bail. He remains in custody at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta. He will next appear in court on Friday, February 25, for a felony settlement conference.

Tough fault line

Over the past year, in response to the alarming rise in fatal fentanyl overdoses in California and nationally, law enforcement agencies, legislators and hundreds of bereaved relatives have had Hardline stance against people who give fentanyl to others then die after using the drug.

Prosecutors throughout Southern California, excluding Los Angeles County, charge fentanyl suppliers with murder under applicable regulations that they believe will justify the charges.

State legislators have also pushed, so far unsuccessfully, for the law to be passed that would make drug traffickers more responsible for a fatal drug overdose, which families often call poisoning because fentanyl is often disguised as a legal drug and victims can You can die from just one dose. Law enforcement uses the ominous phrase “one and done” to describe such deaths.

Photos of murder victims poisoned by fentanyl are displayed as Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks during a news conference to push for tougher penalties for fentanyl traffickers at the District Attorney’s Office Riverside County in Riverside on Wednesday, January 12, 2022. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, Press-Business/SCNG)

Statewide prosecutors and sheriffs held press conferences to educate and warn the public about the growing dangers and presence of fentanyl in their communities. The drug is killing thousands of people – the rate is increasing dramatically every year – in what is known as an “epidemic”.

Prosecution for murder

Since February 2021, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has charged dozens of people with murder in connection with fentanyl-related deaths. In the most recent case, prosecutors on February 16 filed an application murder charges against Justin Lee Kail31 years old, of Winchester involved in a fentanyl overdose on August 24, 2021, which resulted in the death of 27-year-old Ernie Gutierrez.

San Bernardino County prosecutors in July 2021 filed murder against a man in the fatal fentanyl overdose of a 17-year-old boy in Chino Hills.

Orange County has not filed murder charges in any of the fentanyl-related overdoses, but District Attorney Todd Spitzer said at a January press conference in Riverside that his office has now carried out an investigation. A warning to first-time convicted drug dealers that they could face murder charges. Repeated behavior in the future leads to a fatal overdose.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has take the position that increased penalties for drug offenses do not save lives.

Tragic life

Lin fought hard to get bail for his client, saying in a court petition in December 2021 that describing Burns’ life as tragedy would be a “masterpiece of his life”. in a nutshell”.

Burns was 8 years old when his father was killed in a shootout right in front of him. He died in Burns’ lap. Burns’ sister is harassed by their stepfather, who also supplies her with drugs. Burns’ stepfather verbally abused him and his siblings, and threatened to kill them if they revealed what was happening to their sister. In the end, he fed the girl, was arrested, convicted and sent to prison, Lin said in his petition.

Burns started using marijuana at the age of 12. He then left home to “avoid trauma” and worked two jobs to support himself – one in construction and the other as a waitress at Marie Callender’s.

In 2019, a colleague of Burns gave him an oxycodone pill instead of gas money to get him to and from work. “Since this date, Mr. Burns has been stuck,” Lin said in the petition.

As Burns’ tolerance to oxycodone increased, he realized that a single fentanyl pill was equivalent to four oxycodone tablets. His oxycodone addiction turned into a fentanyl addiction. Lin said he started losing his job and stealing money to feed his addiction.

‘fentanyl boy’

In the motion to challenge his bail, prosecutors claimed Burns was an active fentanyl dealer because he called himself “the fentanyl guy” during a September 2, 2021 interview with his investigators. sheriff. He told them his “zone of activity” included Menifee, Murrieta, Temecula, Wildomar and Lake Elsinore, at the request of prosecutors.

Burns says he knows where to buy drugs, but he is not a dealer.

“I don’t sell any drugs, I just use them. But anything related to fentanyl I can get,” Burns told detectives, on the recommendation of prosecutors.

Lin said Burns knew where to get fentanyl because he was an addict, and fentanyl was his drug of choice. “It’s the only drug he does,” he said.

Burns told the sheriff’s investigators he had no idea about Jackson’s death until he was told by investigators that day. He said he assumed Jackson had returned to rehab and had severed ties with him.

He also told investigators that he had previously given fentanyl to his younger brother, who had overdosed but survived. It gave investigators pause to consider Burns’ danger to the public.

“The defendant knew his conduct was dangerous to others, but did not care if anyone was injured or killed,” the district attorney suggested.

There is no sign of selling drugs

Lin said sheriff investigators subpoenaed all of Burns’ phone records and all of his Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat messages.

“Notably, there were no messages indicating Mr Burns was selling any narcotics. Instead, the messages varied from him contacting other addicts to ‘slander,’ to him trying to buy fentanyl from drug dealers,” Lin said in motion of the drug traffickers. myself, note that the messages ranged from September 2020 to July 2021.

He said written communications between Burns and Jackson revealed that they were discussing choosing fentanyl for each other, from the same dealer, depending on who would meet the agent first.

When Burns and Jackson met on January 9, 2021, they used drugs together, after which Burns left. And when he was gone, Jackson was still alive, Lin said.

Lin said: “The next day, Jackson decided to use the leftovers himself and died.

Riverside County District Attorney’s spokesman John Hall said he could not comment on the case, but did say the practice of providing fentanyl to a person who died because it qualifies for murder when the drug supplier receives it. aware that it is inherently dangerous to human life.

And while the victim may well be aware of the inherent dangers of using fentanyl, that doesn’t negate the drug supplier’s criminal behavior, Hall said.

https://www.ocregister.com/2022/02/21/temecula-murder-defendant-is-a-fentanyl-addict-not-a-dealer-attorney-says/ Lawyer says Temecula murder defendant was a fentanyl addict, not a trafficker – Orange County Register

Huynh Nguyen

TheHitc is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – admin@thehitc.com. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Related Articles

Back to top button