Kiaree Burns has battled drug addiction since the age of 12, and fentanyl addiction since 2020.

He often used the cheap synthetic opiate with friend Arianna Jackson. The two often scored the drug for one another, usually from the same dealer, and often got together to use the drug and “blue out,” a term referencing the color of fentanyl pills, said Burns’ attorney, Paul Leonidas Lin.

But on Jan. 10, 2021, their luck ran out. Jackson, 22, was found dead of a fentanyl overdose in her Temecula home, slumped over a bathtub. A pink straw was found in her left hand and a charred piece of aluminum foil and cigarette lighter were lying on the floor next to her body.

On Jackson’s cellphone, sheriff’s investigators found a string of text messages showing that Burns, also of Temecula, was the last person she communicated with. The two discussed Burns picking up fentanyl for Jackson.

Burns, 25, subsequently was charged with murder on Oct. 8, 2021, and he is still wondering why, Lin said.

“It just baffles me that he’s being charged with this kind of case,” Lin said. “Murder is the harshest crime in the books. You don’t go accusing people of it casually. I don’t think anyone should be charged with this willy-nilly. There are too many variables. This is a case of two addicts making poor choices. If anyone is to be blamed, it would be the dealer who kept feeding their addiction.”

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

Hard line

In the past year, in response to alarming increases in fatal fentanyl overdoses in California and nationwide, law enforcement agencies, legislators, and hundreds of bereaved parents have taken a hard line against people who provide fentanyl to others who subsequently die after using the drug.

Prosecutors across Southern California, with the exception of Los Angeles County, are charging fentanyl suppliers with murder under existing statutes they believe justify the charges.

State legislators also have been pushing, so far unsuccessfully, to get laws passed that would hold drug dealers more accountable for fatal drug overdoses, which families prefer to call poisonings because fentanyl often is disguised as legitimate pharmaceuticals and victims can die from just one dose. Law enforcement uses the ominous phrase “one and done” to describe such deaths.

Images of homicide victims poisoned by fentanyl are displayed as Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks during a press conference to promote tougher penalties against fentanyl dealers at the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office in Riverside on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Prosecutors and police chiefs across the state have held news conferences to educate and warn the public on the increasing dangers and presence of fentanyl in their communities. The drug is killing people by the thousands — a rate that’s increasing substantially every year — in what is being called an “epidemic.”

Murder prosecutions

Since February 2021, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has charged a dozen people with murder in connection with fentanyl-related deaths. In the most recent case, prosecutors on Feb. 16 filed a  murder charge against Justin Lee Kail, 31, of Winchester in connection with the Aug. 24, 2021, fatal fentanyl overdose of 27-year-old Ernie Gutierrez.

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

Orange County has not filed murder charges in any fentanyl-related overdose cases, but District Attorney Todd Spitzer said at a January news conference in Riverside that his office has now implemented an admonishment to first-time convicted drug dealers that they could face murder charges for future repeat conduct resulting in a fatal overdose.

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

Tragic life

Lin fought hard to get bail set for his client, saying in a court motion filed in December 2021 that to describe Burns’ life as tragic would be a “masterpiece of an understatement.”

Burns was 8 when his father was killed in a drive-by shooting right in front of him. He died in Burns’ lap. Burns’ sister was molested by their stepfather, who also provided her drugs. Burns’ stepfather verbally abused him and his siblings, and threatened to kill them if they disclosed what was going on with their sister. Eventually, he impregnated the girl, was arrested, convicted and sent to prison, Lin said in his motion.

Burns began using marijuana at age 12. He subsequently left home to “avoid the trauma” and worked two jobs to support himself — one in construction and the other as a server at Marie Callender’s.

In 2019, a co-worker of Burns gave him an oxycodone pill instead of gas money for ferrying him to and from work. “From this day on, Mr. Burns was hooked,” Lin said in the motion.

As Burns’ tolerance to oxycodone built up, he realized a single fentanyl pill was equivalent to four oxycodone pills. His oxycodone addiction became a fentanyl addiction. He began missing work and stealing money to feed his addiction, Lin said.

‘The fentanyl guy’

In their motion opposing bail, prosecutors claimed Burns was an active fentanyl dealer because he referred to himself as “the fentanyl guy” during a Sept. 2, 2021, interview with sheriff’s investigators. He told them his “area of operation” included Menifee, Murrieta, Temecula, Wildomar and Lake Elsinore, according to the prosecutors’ motion.

Burns said he knew where to procure the drug, but that he wasn’t a dealer.

“I don’t sell drugs at all, I just use. But anything fentanyl related I can get,” Burns told the detectives, according to the prosecutors’ motion.

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

Burns told sheriff’s investigators he knew nothing about Jackson’s death until he was told by the investigators that day. He said he presumed Jackson had gone back into rehab and had cut ties with him.

He also told investigators that he had previously provided fentanyl to his younger brother, who overdosed on it 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 someone was hurt or killed,” according to the district attorney’s motion.

No hint of drug sales

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

“Notably there were no messages where Mr. Burns was selling any narcotics. Rather, the messages varied from him contacting other addicts to ‘blue out,’ to him attempting to purchase fentanyl from drug dealers,” Lin said in his motion, noting that the messages ranged from September 2020 through July 2021.

He said the text communications between Burns and Jackson reveal they were discussing picking up fentanyl for each other, from the same dealer, depending on who would see the dealer first.

When Burns and Jackson got together on Jan. 9, 2021, they used drugs together, then Burns left. And when he left, Jackson was still alive, Lin said.

“The next day, Jackson decided to use the leftovers by herself and died,” Lin said.

Riverside County district attorney spokesman John Hall said he could not comment on the case, but did say that the act of providing fentanyl to a person who dies from it qualifies for murder when the drug supplier is aware that it is inherently dangerous to human life.

And while the victim may also be aware of the inherent danger of using fentanyl, it does not negate the criminal conduct of the person providing the drugs, Hall said.