A Napa County jury acquitted 25-year-old Alan Jazeel Martinez of second-degree murder and felony child endangerment on August 26 in the 2022 fentanyl overdose death of 17-year-old Monica Flores, while convicting him on six other felony drug counts.
The Case
Prosecutors alleged Martinez sold Flores, a Vintage High School senior, fentanyl-laced pills on May 10 and May 16, 2022. Flores was found dead in her home that May, weeks before her scheduled graduation. When Napa County filed murder charges against Martinez in 2023, it marked the first time in county history a fentanyl dealer had been charged with murder over an overdose death.
Why the Jury Acquitted on Murder
The defense argued that Flores had multiple substances in her system and survived for days after the transaction, making it too speculative to establish that Martinez’s specific pills directly caused her death. Jurors ultimately found him not guilty of murder and child endangerment while convicting him on six felony counts, including transporting and selling fentanyl and inducing a minor to consume a controlled substance.
Not the Only Person Charged
Martinez wasn’t the only person prosecuted in Flores’s death. A second man, Luis Fajardo Melgoza, was also charged with murder in the case and pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in 2024, according to court records, meaning one of the two men originally charged in her death has already been held criminally responsible for it.
What Comes Next
Martinez faces sentencing on the drug convictions, which carry substantially less prison time than a murder charge would have. His exact sentencing date has not been publicly set.
Related from BeezLoop: Stolen Nissan Leads LAPD on Wild Overnight Chase Across Los Angeles Freeways, Ends With…, Thieves Steal $70,000 Worth of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer in Back-to-Back California Heists and 19-Year-Old Critically Wounded in Shooting at Oxnard Five Guys.
[…] reading: a Napa jury acquitted a dealer of murder in a teenager’s fentanyl death, and why a scary health headline can be technically true and still tell you almost […]