California man sentenced to 15 years for fentanyl deal leading to fatal overdose

He meant to sell cocaine to a customer, but mistakenly provided the highly potent opioid fentanyl instead, officials said.

A judge sentenced a Van Nuys man to 15 years in prison Monday, Nov. 2, after he admitted to selling drugs to a man who then suffered a fatal overdose and crashed his car in Sherman Oaks.

James Dorion Rodriguez, 29, of Van Nuys, pleaded guilty in December to one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, U.S. Attorney’s Office officials said in a news release. Authorities believe he meant to perform a cocaine deal in March 2018, but gave his customer the highly potent opioid fentanyl instead.

The drug buyer, a 23-year-old man, snorted the drugs and drove away, then suffered a fatal overdose about 20 minutes later, officials said. He had crashed his vehicle in the parking lot of a restaurant on Ventura Boulevard.

Rodriguez continued to sell drugs after his customer’s death, prosecutors said. He was arrested in September 2018 after investigators found about 7 grams of fentanyl and notebooks documenting narcotics sales during a search of his car.

He later confessed to supplying fentanyl to the victim on the night of his death, officials said. That drug deal took place less than one month after Rodriguez had been convicted in a separate narcotics trafficking case.