San Jacinto man gets 12 years for supplying deadly dose of fentanyl

A 26-year-old San Jacinto man who supplied a fatal dose of fentanyl to an acquaintance was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in state prison.

Samuel Leo Mussaw last month admitted to voluntary manslaughter and to the possession of controlled substances for sale under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a second-degree murder charge.

Mussaw provided a quantity of fentanyl that claimed the life of 23-year-old Adam Young of San Jacinto on March 4, 2021.

That afternoon, deputies and paramedics were called to the 900 block of Cypress Drive, near Malaga Drive, in San Jacinto. Young was found unconscious. Efforts by first responders to revive him were unsuccessful.

The defendant and victim knew each other.

A search warrant was served at Mussaw’s residence in the 100 block of North Dillon Road, where three firearms and about 2,000 fentanyl pills were seized, authorities said. He was taken into custody.

Countywide, more than two dozen people have been charged with murder in fentanyl-related cases.

Data from the county Department of Public Health shows there were 388 confirmed fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 23% decline from 2022.

Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the synthetic opioid is smuggled across the U.s.-mexico border by cartels.

The drug is 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans 18 to 45 years old.