A 25-year-old woman from Fresno was sentenced to 19 years and four months in state prison after being convicted of second-degree murder for giving fentanyl pills to 41-year-old Jade Dreith, who died in 2022.
Cassidy Marie Gonzalez was found guilty of second-degree murder last March. It was the first time a jury in Fresno County returned a guilty verdict in a fentanyl-related homicide trial.
On Friday, Gonzalez was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for giving Dreith counterfeit fentanyl pills called “blue M-30s.” She also got an extra four years and four months for other felony convictions related to selling drugs.
“This sentencing reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s actions and the devastating and deadly consequences of distributing fentanyl,” Fresno County Dist. Atty. Lisa Smittcamp said in a statement. “Fentanyl continues to claim lives in our community, and when someone knowingly sells this poison and a life is lost, we will pursue maximum accountability under the law.”
During the trial, evidence showed that Gonzalez knowingly sold fentanyl to Dreith, which led to her overdose and death. The Fresno County district attorney’s office said the jury found that Gonzalez “acted with conscious disregard for human life, meeting the legal standard for second-degree murder under California law.” After Dreith’s death, Gonzalez kept selling counterfeit prescription M-30s with fentanyl, even though she knew how dangerous they were.
“No one deserves to die because of this,” Jade’s sister Sage Dreith said during a news conference in 2022. “She didn’t know she was going to die, she didn’t plan to kill herself or do anything like that. She was folding laundry, eating a snack and playing with her dog and she fell asleep and never woke up.”
“This is murder without using a weapon,” Smittcamp added at the time. “These people know this pill can kill people.”
Because of her age when she committed the crime, Gonzalez will be eligible for Youthful Offender Parole after serving part of her sentence.
While this was the first case like this in Fresno County, other counties such as Riverside, Placer and San Bernardino have also filed murder charges in fentanyl-related deaths. In Los Angeles, Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman has supported charging fentanyl dealers with voluntary manslaughter or murder if someone dies from the drugs they sell. In October, a 23-year-old woman from Palmdale was charged with murder after her 2-year-old son died from an overdose in 2023.
