Jury selection begins in Placer County re-trial for man accused of murder in fentanyl death
Jury selection began Monday in the second trial for a 23-year-old man who two years ago was the first defendant in Placer County to charged with murder in a fentanyl death.
Carson David Schewe, who has remained in custody at the Placer County Jail since his February 2022 arrest, is accused of selling fentanyl in December 2021 to 20-year-old Kade Kristopher Webb, who later died from an overdose in Roseville.
Fentanyl is a powerful and potentially addictive synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin. The California Department of Justice has said two milligrams of fentanyl can result in overdose and potentially death.
Placer Deputy District Attorney Devan Portillo, who is prosecuting the case, argued in the first trial that Schewe knew of fentanyl’s dangers; people close to him died from its toxicity and he overdosed himself. Yet, he didn’t care and sold the fentanyl that took Webb’s life, the prosecutor said in court.
Brad Whatcott, Schewe’s defense attorney, cast doubt that Schewe supplied the drug that killed Webb. Whatcott planned to call a defense expert witness, a doctor, who would question if fentanyl toxicity caused Webb’s death. The defense attorney told the jury in the first trial that his client was guilty of selling drugs but argued there was no malice to support the murder charge.
But Schewe’s first trial ended abruptly March 1, four days after it began, after a lab failed to provide the prosecution and the defense a report detailing a summary of results from the victim’s blood tests. Placer Superior Court Judge Michael Jones was forced to declare a mistrial and order a second trial for Schewe with a new jury.
On Monday morning, the judge said arguments and testimony in Schewe’s second trial was estimated to continue through Sept. 26. Along with the murder charge, Schewe faces two counts of possessing drugs for the purpose of selling the narcotics.
The prosecutor told the judge that prospective jurors should be asked whether they are aware of the county’s public awareness campaign on fentanyl called “1 Pill Can Kill.”
The campaign warns parents and their children about the dangers of fentanyl. The campaign’s website includes testimonial from Laura and Chris Didier, the parents of 17-year-old Zachary Didier.
The Rocklin teen purchased what he thought was Percocet from Virgil Xavier Bordner on Snapchat. His parents have said their son instead unknowingly bought and ingested the synthetic opioid and died Dec. 27, 2020, from fentanyl poisoning. Bordner of Sacramento in July 2022 pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and two counts of selling drugs to a minor, and he was later sentenced to 17 years in prison for Didier’s death.
Judge Jones agreed that the prospective jurors should be asked about fentanyl awareness campaign and know anyone who has been charged with a fentanyl-related crime or someone who has used the drug.
On the county’s website, Schewe’s criminal case is listed among five cases in which a defendant has been charged with murder for “fentanyl dealers whose sales resulted in a death” on a web page titled “Fighting Fentanyl in Placer County.”
Last week, James Scott Teahan Jr., 34, became the fifth person in Placer County to be charged with murder in connection with a fentanyl death. Teahan is accused in the April 24 death of Stephen Windham.
Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire and other prosecutors in California have taken a new approach to fentanyl deaths, filing murder charges against people who sell or provide fentanyl to someone who later dies from ingesting the drugs.
Schewe’s case is the only Placer County murder case in a fentanyl death that has gone to trial.
