Man arrested in connection to fentanyl OD | Local News

A man was arrested Wednesday for selling the painkiller fentanyl to a San Carlos woman who died from an overdose in September.  

Jon Oxenford, 25, of East Palo Alto, was charged with the sale of narcotics and for causing great bodily injury resulting from that sale, but he is not being charged with homicide, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Tacking on great bodily injury to a charge of selling narcotics can result in an additional three years of prison time, he added.   

The 32-year-old overdose victim died Sept. 26 and police identified Oxenford as the man who sold her the drugs based on her cellphone correspondences. It appears she purchased $20 worth of fentanyl from Oxenford, who was not present when the woman overdosed, Wagstaffe said. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Detectives arrested Oxenford at his East Palo Alto residence where more narcotics and narcotic paraphernalia were discovered, according to a press release. He was booked into San Mateo County Jail on $115,000 bail.  

For Oxenford to be charged with homicide, prosecutors would need to prove that he injected the drugs himself or knowingly supplied the victim with a lethal amount of drugs.

“It’s been awhile since we had an arrest like this,” Wagstaffe said. “The last time we drew a connection between the dealer and the overdose was about 10 years ago and we’ve never had a case where there was sufficient evidence for a homicide charge.”

Oxenford had his first court appearance on Jan. 10 and plead not guilty. His next court date is Jan. 22.