Sacramento County man accused of murder in Roseville fentanyl death makes first court appearance
A Sacramento County man accused of murder in the 2020 fentanyl death of a Roseville man made his first appearance in Placer Superior Court on Wednesday.
Christopher Kegan Williams, 29, was arrested last week at his Citrus Heights home in connection with the death of 20-year-old Spencer Newsom. Williams was formally charged with murder and possessing drugs for sale in connection with Newsom’s fentanyl death.
Judge Michael Jones appointed the Placer County Public Defender’s Office to represent Williams, who only spoke in the courtroom to confirm his name Wednesday.
The judge granted the defense’s request to postpone Williams’ arraignment hearing until Feb. 20, when the court will also review Williams’ charges and determine whether to set a bail amount. Williams is being held without bail at the Placer County Jail.
Fentanyl is a powerful and potentially addictive drug that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin. The California Department of Justice has said two milligrams of the synthetic opioid can result in overdose and potentially death.
After Wednesday’s hearing, Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said his office alleges Williams provided the fentanyl that killed Newsom knowing the dangers of fentanyl, “and obviously we feel we can prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.”
On Sept. 21, 2020, Newsom was found dead in his Roseville apartment. He was the oldest of three siblings, had finished his EMT training at Sierra College and had sought to enroll in the fire academy.
Laura Collanton, Newsom’s mother, said her son bought what he believed was a Xanax pill from another Snapchat user and died after ingesting the synthetic opioid.
“No one knew about these fake pills back then. Maybe the dealers did know about the fake pills,” Collanton told The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday. “My son wasn’t looking for fentanyl. You shouldn’t die because somebody lied to you.”
Authorities now say fentanyl can be sold as pills with some online dealers claiming the pills are Xanax, Percocet and Oxycodone. Fentanyl also can come in powder and vape pens.
High profile criminal cases have involved evidence showing young people using their social media accounts, such as Snapchat, to sell or and find fentanyl to buy.
Collanton, along with other mothers of people who’ve died from fentanyl, have become vocal advocates for fentanyl awareness for young people, treatment for those struggling with addiction and prosecution of those selling fentanyl.
Gire and other prosecutors in California have taken a new approach to fentanyl deaths by filing murder charges against people who sell or provide fentanyl to someone who later dies from ingesting the drugs.
With Williams’ case, Gire’s office has filed murder charges against six defendants accused in Placer County fentanyl deaths. Three of those cases ended in plea deals; one of them ended with a jury conviction for murder and another is still pending.
The investigation of Newsom’s death, Gire said, remained active but took more than four years to make an arrest. He said the long wait was “aggravating” for Newsom’s family, but evidence can take time to process.
“It’s not a traditional cold case. Typically, cold cases are those that all leads dry up and they sit on a shelf for a while and then they’re revisited. This one, I would say was more on sort of simmer,” Gire told reporters outside the courthouse. “Sometimes, leads develop into further avenues of investigation, and we don’t file a case until we feel we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
He said his office and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office follow every lead, and this case shows “that we don’t give up. We don’t stop.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM.
