Trial date set for Canyon Lake man accused of fentanyl death of girl

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA – An October 29 trial date was confirmed Tuesday for a young man accused, along with an accomplice, of administering a fatal dose of fentanyl to a 16-year-old French Valley girl.

Jeremiah David Carlton, 21, of Canyon Lake is accused in the death of the teenager, identified in court documents only as “JG.”

Carlton is charged with first-degree murder, transportation of controlled substances for sale, and possession of controlled substances for sale.

During a pretrial hearing Tuesday at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta, Riverside County Superior Court Judge John Monterosso consulted with the prosecution and defense on a specific date for the next phase of the trial, and both sides indicated they were ready to move forward with the trial late next month.

Carlton is being held at the Byrd Detention Center on $1 million bail.

His co-defendant, 21-year-old Raymond Gene Tyrrell of French Valley, who was charged separately, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in July and was sentenced to three years in prison. However, because he had already spent a lot of time in prison while awaiting the outcome of the case and because of other penalty points, Judge Stephen Gallon commuted his prison sentence to a so-called “paper sentence,” making Tyrrell eligible for immediate parole.

Sergeant Rick Espinoza of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department alleged that Carlton and Tyrrell provided the drugs that led to JG's death on the night of February 24, 2021, at a residence in the 35,000 block of Sugar Maple Street, near Leon Road.

Espinoza said officers were called to the scene to investigate two possible fentanyl poisonings and found the girl and a man, whose identity was not disclosed, in a coma. Both were taken to a regional trauma center, where the man was resuscitated but the girl succumbed to the toxic poisoning.

“Detectives conducted an investigation and concluded that this may have been a murder,” the sergeant said, but declined to comment further on the circumstances.

Tyrrell was summoned to the Murrieta Sheriff's Southwest Station a day later and questioned by detectives. He was then taken into custody. A warrant was issued for Carlton's arrest and he was taken into custody at his residence.

None of the defendants had any previous conviction for a crime.

Since February 2021, prosecutors have filed charges against more than 30 people across the county in connection with fentanyl poisoning.

In November, prosecutors completed the county's first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury. The case ended with the conviction of 34-year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman. District Attorney Mike Hestrin said it was the first fentanyl murder conviction in the state.

According to health statistics, there were 550 known fentanyl-related deaths countywide in 2023, a 9% increase from 2022, when there were 503.

Fentanyl is produced in laboratories abroad, mainly in China, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. The synthetic opioid is smuggled by cartels across the US-Mexico border.

Fentanyl is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into a variety of street drugs and prescription medications without the user knowing what they are taking. Ingesting just two milligrams can be fatal.

Fentanyl is the leading cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 45.