‘Zach did not deserve to die’: Sacramento man sentenced in Placer County fentanyl death
Virgil Xavier Bordner spoke in a crowded courtroom Thursday morning, explaining to the judge that he was afraid and worried about what will come next for him.
But the 22-year-old Sacramento man said he wasn’t only thinking of himself. He also was thinking about 17-year-old Zachary Didier and his grieving family. Bordner accepted full responsibility for selling a lethal dose of fentanyl to the Rocklin teen.
“Understand that this is something I have to live with for the rest of my life. If I could take it back in a heartbeat and exchange my life for Zach’s, I would,” Bordner said in the courtroom. “I never meant any harm to Zach. I’m not an evil person, nor am I a violent person.”
Moments later, Placer Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Penney sentenced Bordner to 17 years in prison for Didier’s death. Bordner on July 12 pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and two counts of selling drugs to a minor. His conviction included an enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury.
Didier, a student athlete at Whitney High School, purchased what he thought was Percocet from Bordner on Snapchat. His parents have said the teen instead unknowingly bought and ingested the synthetic opioid and died Dec. 27, 2020, from fentanyl poisoning.
Mother speaks about son’s lost future
Laura Didier, the teen’s mother, said it was impossible not to love her son, a joyful self-taught musician with a love for singing. He had mustered the courage to audition for a musical, and he starred in that stage production months before his death.
“It was a beautiful show. And I knew I believed it would be the first of many times I would watch him light up the stage,” the mother said in the courtroom before Bordner was sentenced. “Zach worked so hard to set himself up for an amazing future that he never got to see.”
Jennifer May Avey Mouzis, Bordner’s attorney, told the judge that her client understands what he did “was deeply wrong,” and he is making a sincere effort to change so he doesn’t reoffend and cause harm again.
Bordner called Didier a good friend. He said he recognizes that his family and Didier’s family are both suffering now, and he has more than a year of incarceration to think about the consequences of his actions.
“There is nothing that I can say or do to bring your son back, for which I’m deeply sorry for,” Bordner said in court. “Not a day goes by where I don’t think about the choices that have impacted and caused suffering to Zach’s family and others.”
In a news conference outside the courthouse, Didier’s mother said she was grateful to hear Bordner speak with remorse about her son’s death.
“And if me acknowledging his comments and expressing gratitude for those comments helps him to lead a better life in the future, then he has those,” the mother told reporters.
Father says son was victim of fentanyl crisis
Chris Didier, the teen’s father, spoke to the judge about “the debilitating torment and anguish of losing your own child.” He said his son had a bright future with acceptance to five University of California campuses, including UCLA.
Instead of moving onto college, his son unexpectedly died in his own bedroom — another victim of a growing fentanyl crisis. The father said it was only on that day that he knew about the pervasiveness of fentanyl poisoning and the accessibility through social media to the dangerously potent drug.
“Drug manufacturers are creating a product with a purpose to deceive, and our nation’s young adults are now being targeted and tricked to believing their purchase is a safe pharmaceutical-grade product by drug dealers,” the father told the judge.
Laura and Chris Didier, the Rocklin teen’s parents, have joined Placer County’s public awareness campaign “1 Pill Can Kill,” to warn other parents and their children about the dangers of fentanyl. They have spoken to over 12,000 students at school assemblies and discussed the death of their son in a three-episode podcast.
County officials say fentanyl pills are not laced prescription pills; fentanyl is being pressed into fake pills known as “fentapills.” The result is a higher rate of lethal poisonings among one-time users. And dealers are selling the fake pills using social media and money exchange apps.
The Didiers said they struggled with their decision to speak publicly about their son’s death, which resulted in others “victim-shaming” or “parent-shaming” and ignoring their warnings about deadly drug. The teen’s father said his son had no known history of drug addiction or depression.
“I know he did not want to die, but his decision to self-medicate with what he thought was a non-lethal prescription pill cost him his life,” the father said in court. “The actions of the defendant providing counterfeit pills have greatly affected our lives in the worst possible way.”
Authorities say these fentanyl pills are cheap to make and offer easy profits to drug dealers. Fentanyl can come in pills, powder and vape pens, and 2 milligrams can provide a lethal dose. Purchasing prescription pills, such as Xanax, Percocet and Oxycodone, from somewhere other than a pharmacy are likely fake and potentially deadly.
Didier’s father said the responsibility for his son’s death should fall on those who manufacture, smuggle and sell fentanyl to unsuspecting young people.
“Although I would never condone self-medication or underage recreational use of any product, Zach did not deserve to die for these types of decisions. No one deserves that,” the father told the judge.
Rising fentanyl deaths in Placer County
So far this year, Placer County has had 39 drug overdose deaths; 20 of those fatalities were due to fentanyl poisoning. Last year, 33 died from fentanyl poisoning in the county; 24 died in 2020 and there were six fentanyl deaths in 2019.
In the courtroom, Deputy District Attorney Daniel Wesp advised Bordner that if he is accused again of selling fentanyl and causing someone’s death, he could be charged with murder.
For the first time, Placer County prosecutors in February filed a murder charge against a defendant accused of selling the synthetic opioid fentanyl to a person who later died. Carson David Schewe, 20, also faces a charge of drug possession for sale in connection with the victim’s overdose death in Roseville.
Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said Bordner’s sentence marks the end of this case, but it’s only the beginning of the county’s advocacy efforts, prosecuting those responsible and raising awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.
“We will attack this fentanyl crisis from every angle,” Gire told reporters in the news conference. “We will shout this message in education and awareness forms to our schools, on our billboards, on our city buses, to our parents, to our teachers, to everyone who will listen.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 3:54 PM.
