Sacramento County man sentenced for selling fentanyl to teenager who died from overdose
A Sacramento County man has been sentenced to five years in prison for unknowingly selling fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid, to an El Dorado County teenager who overdosed on the pills twice before he died.
U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller sentenced Sergey Tkachuk of North Highlands on Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento announced in a news release. On April 19, Tkachuk pleaded guilty to one count of distributing fentanyl as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
George Berry, 18, of El Dorado Hills, was the young man who died March 28, 2016, from the overdose, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office reported. His death was among nine Sacramento-area fatal fentanyl overdoses in spring 2016, which included hospitalizations of 27 others.
There’s no indication that Tkachuk’s actions led to the deaths or hospitalizations of anyone else. In court documents filed in U.S. District Court Eastern District of California, the victim in Tkachuk’s case is identified as “G.B.”
Tkachuk, 28, obtained 40 pills bearing the mark “M367,” which indicated to him that the pill was a Lortab 10 or Norco, but the pills were “counterfeit versions and contained fentanyl,” according to the news release. Prosecutors said Tkachuk sold 16 of those pills, $6 each, to the victim in this case who later died of an overdose.
In a sentencing memorandum filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on July 6, prosecutors acknowledged that there was no evidence that showed Tkachuk knew the pills he sold contained fentanyl. But the prosecution argued that not knowing did not absolve Tkachuk of the “recklessness-leading-to-death,” according to the court document.
When laced with fentanyl, the pills can shut down breathing, cause cardiac arrest and kill within minutes.
The prosecution wrote in the sentencing memo that the 18-year-old victim initially was treated at a hospital for an overdose from the fentanyl pills Tkachuk sold him. But the victim later left the hospital against the advice of doctors. Prosecutors said the victim then took more pills and died after a second overdose.
The prosecution asked the judge to sentence Tkachuk to five years in prison, “which is fair and reasonable considering the circumstances present in this case,” according to the sentencing memo.
