Felon Accused of Providing Fatal Dose of Fentanyl to Wildomar Man Arraigned

MURRIETA (CNS) – A probationer accused of supplying a fatal dose of fentanyl to a 32-year-old Wildomar man pleaded not guilty Monday to second- degree murder.

Alexander Dimitrios Magos, 28, of Murrieta was arrested in October following an 18-month Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the death of Shane Carlin.

Magos was arraigned before Superior Court Judge Elaine Kiefer, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for May 17 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

The defendant is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the nearby Byrd Detention Center.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Marcuse, on the afternoon of May 6, 2021, deputies were summoned to the 23000 block of Peggy Lane, just east of Interstate 15, to investigate reports of an unconscious man in a residence.

Deputies and paramedics arrived within minutes and discovered Carlin "not breathing," Marcuse said.

The victim was taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Marcuse said that an autopsy "determined Carlin was a victim of fentanyl poisoning."

The sheriff’s Overdose Death & Narcotics Unit took over the investigation, eventually gathering sufficient evidence to identify Magos as the person "responsible for selling the fentanyl that killed Carlin," the sergeant alleged.

How the convicted felon and victim knew one another was not disclosed.

Magos was taken into custody without incident at his residence on Mountain Pride Drive last Oct. 27.

According to court records, he has prior convictions for possession of controlled substances for sale, smuggling controlled substances into jail and driving under the influence.

Since February 2021, nearly two dozen people countywide have been charged with murder in connection with fentanyl poisonings.

According to public safety officials, almost 500 people in Riverside County died from fentanyl poisoning in 2022. That compares to just under 400 in 2021, a 200-fold increase from 2016, when only two such fatalities were documented.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says it’s smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels. The drug is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

According to federal agencies, fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 years old.

Copyright 2023, City News Service, Inc.