Felony charges are expected to be filed Wednesday against a man accused of selling a deadly dose of fentanyl to a 36-year-old Calimesa resident.
Gregory Robert Oviatt, 34, of Redlands, was arrested Sunday and booked into the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning on suspicion of second-degree murder in connection with the death of Eric Lopez.
Oviatt is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, and his case is under review by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
In the last 13 months, a dozen people countywide have been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly selling fentanyl with deadly outcomes.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Marcuse, Oviatt was linked to Lopez’s death following a nearly two-month-long investigation.
Marcuse said that on the morning of Jan. 27, deputies and paramedics were called to a residence in the 10000 block of Desert Lawn Drive, near Brookside Avenue, to investigate reports of a possible drug-related cardiac arrest.
Lopez was found dead at the location, Marcuse said, adding that an autopsy revealed “fentanyl poisoning” as the cause of the fatality, prompting an investigation that ultimately pointed to Oviatt as the alleged dealer who supplied an undisclosed quantity of the synthetic opioid to the victim.
An arrest warrant was obtained and served by deputies Sunday afternoon at the suspect’s home on Oak Valley Road, where he was taken into custody without incident.
Background information on Oviatt was unavailable.
Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs and smuggled primarily across the U.S.-Mexico border. The drug is known to be 80-100 times more potent than morphine and is a popular additive, mixed into any number of narcotics and pharmaceuticals, according to public safety officials.
According to Sheriff Chad Bianco, there were about 500 fentanyl-induced deaths countywide last year, representing a 250-fold increase from 2016, when only two such fatalities were documented.