Charges Filed Against Murrieta Man 18 Months After Fentanyl Death

MURRIETA, CA — A Murrieta probationer accused of supplying a fatal dose of fentanyl to a 32-year-old Wildomar man was charged Monday with second-degree murder.

Alexander Dimitrios Magos, 27, of Murrieta, was arrested Thursday following an 18-month-long Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation into the death of Shane Carlin.

Magos is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta and was slated to make his initial court appearance Monday afternoon at the nearby Southwest Justice Center.

According to sheriff's Sgt. Ryan Marcuse, on the afternoon of May 6, 2021, deputies were summoned to the 23000 block of Peggy Lane, just east of Interstate 15, to investigate reports of an unconscious man in a residence.

Deputies and paramedics arrived within minutes and discovered Carlin "not breathing," Marcuse said.

The victim was taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Marcuse said an autopsy "determined Carlin was a victim of fentanyl poisoning."

The sheriff's Overdose Death & Narcotics Unit took over the investigation, eventually gathering sufficient evidence to identify Magos as the person "responsible for selling the fentanyl that killed Carlin," the sergeant alleged.

How the convicted felon and victim knew one another was not disclosed.

Magos was taken into custody without incident at his residence on Mountain Pride Drive Thursday morning.

According to court records, he has prior convictions for possession of controlled substances for sale, smuggling controlled substances into jail and driving under the influence.

District Attorney Mike Hestrin announced earlier this month that, since February 2021, just over 20 people countywide had been charged with murder in connection with alleged fentanyl poisonings.

Sheriff Chad Bianco said there have been 338 fentanyl-related deaths so far this year. In 2021, there were just over 400 -- a 200-fold increase from 2016.

Statistics published in May by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed there were roughly 108,000 fatal drug overdoses in 2021, and fentanyl poisoning accounted for over 80,000 of them.

The synthetic opioid is manufactured in overseas labs and according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, it's smuggled across the U.S.- Mexico border by cartels. The substance is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without the user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

On Oct. 20, the county initiated a public awareness campaign, "The Faces of Fentanyl," emphasizing the perils of fentanyl use. The campaign web portal, www.FacesOfFentanyl.net, offers resources, including substance abuse counseling options, that are available to residents countywide.