Sacramento County man arrested in Placer fentanyl bust faces murder charge in overdose
Placer County prosecutors on Wednesday filed a murder charge against a Sacramento County man accused of supplying the synthetic opioid fentanyl to an Auburn woman who died in an overdose.
Aaron Kurtis Dare II, 24, of Fair Oaks is accused of murder in the death of a 25-year-old woman who was found dead in her room at her Auburn home on Aug. 31. Dare has been in custody at the Placer County Jail since his Sept. 6 arrest. The court has set his bail amount at $1 million.
Local, state and federal investigators on Sept. 6 served a search warrant at a hotel room where they found Dare with $1,200 worth of fentanyl, a loaded revolver and evidence of drug sales, the California Department of Justice announced in a news release Monday.
On Sept. 8, the Placer County District Attorney’s Office filed a criminal complaint against Dare, charging him with possessing fentanyl for the purpose of sale and being a felon in possession of a handgun and ammunition. The drug possession charge has an enhancement for Dare allegedly being armed with a gun, according to the complaint.
Local prosecutors on Wednesday filed an amended criminal complaint, adding the murder charge against Dare. He appeared Wednesday in Placer Superior Court for the hearing that lasted about four minutes.
Paul Comiskey, Dare’s attorney, entered a not guilty plea on his client’s behalf. Judge Angus Saint-Evens scheduled Dare to return to court Nov. 30.
“We knew that his alleged sale of fentanyl was connected to her death,” Placer County Morgan Gire told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing. “The investigation that continued after his arrest led us to increase the charges to murder.”
Gire said Dare and the woman knew each other before he sold her fentanyl that killed her. Prosecutors have not yet released the name of the woman who died. Members of her family attended Wednesday’s hearing, but they did not speak to news media outside the courthouse.
He said the woman’s family is “devastated,” because they are in still the process of grieving as this criminal court case begins.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been in this situation a number of times in this community where we have families who have lost loved ones from fentanyl,” Gire said. “As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for them.”
Gire declined to say whether the fentanyl in this murder case was sold via social media, a common venue for dealers to sell the illegal narcotic. He also declined to say in which form or quantity of fentanyl was found in Dare’s possession, fearing revealing details about the pending prosecution could hamper the criminal case.
“The message to the dealers is pretty clear: If you sell fentanyl in our community, we will come after you aggressively as evidenced by the murder charges today,” Gire told reporters. “The message to the community is: This fentanyl is out there, and it’s in different forms. In pills, in powders that you purchase from street dealers. It’s going to be fentanyl, and it’s likely going to be fatal.”
This is the third time Gire’s office has decided to file a murder charge against a defendant accused of supplying fentanyl to someone who died in an overdose or poisoning.
In February, the District Attorney’s Office for the first time filed a murder charge against a defendant accused of selling the 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.
Prosecutors on Aug. 12 filed a murder charge against 21-year-old Nathaniel Evan Cabacungan, who is accused in the fentanyl death of a 15-year-old girl in Roseville. Cabacungan also is accused of furnishing drugs to a minor and meeting with a minor for the purpose of engaging in lewd behavior.
Schewe and Cabacungan on Wednesday also remained in custody at the Placer County Jail.
“Our goal is not to get more murder cases to prosecute,” Gire said. “Our goal is to save lives.”
Fentanyl is a powerful and potentially addictive synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin. The state Department of Justice said two milligrams of fentanyl can result in overdose and potentially death.
As of Sept. 1, Placer County 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.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office on Monday urged residents to be on the lookout for the candy-like pills “rainbow” fentanyl, which have been found in the Sacramento area. The rainbow fentanyl comes in the form of brightly-colored pills, often counterfeit oxycodone M30s. The pills bear a resemblance to tablet candies, such as Smarties or SweeTARTS.
Sacramento City Unified School District earlier this month decided to distribute Narcan, the medication used to save lives in the event of an opioid-related overdose or poisoning. The Narcan, a brand of naloxone, was distributed to administrators at all of the district’s campuses.
This Sacramento school district’s decision came after a state alert about rainbow fentanyl. There were 174 opioid-related deaths in Sacramento County last year, according to the Sacramento County Opioid Coalition.
Dare’s arrest last month was the result of an investigation by the Placer County Special Investigation Unit, joint task force of local law enforcement. The investigation was led by the state Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation.
“Throughout the nation, we continue to address the impacts of the opioid crisis, and have in recent years seen a marked increase in fentanyl use and associated deaths,” California Attorney General Bonta said in the news release. “Today we grieve the loss of yet another young life to this drug — a loss that should never have occurred. “
