A convicted felon accused of selling a deadly dose of fentanyl to a 36-year-old Calimesa man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder.
Gregory Robert Oviatt, 34, of Redlands was arrested last month following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the death of Eric Lopez.
Oviatt was arraigned before Superior Court Judge Mark Singerton, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for June 10 at the Banning Justice Center and ordered that the defendant remain held in lieu of $1 million bail at the nearby Smith Correctional Facility.
Oviatt is the 15th person since February 2021 who has been charged with murder in the county for allegedly selling fentanyl with a deadly outcome.
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 sent to a residence in the 10000 block of Desert Lawn Drive, near Brookside Avenue, in response to 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.
The defendant was arrested without incident at his Oak Valley Road residence on March 20.
According to court records, he has prior convictions for grand theft, possession of controlled substances and hit-and-run resulting in property damage.
Fentanyl is manufactured overseas and, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels. The drug is known to be 80-100 times more potent than morphine and is a popular additive, mixed into narcotics and pharmaceuticals, according to public safety officials.
Last week, Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Temecula, and Ken Calvert, R-Corona, announced the formation of what they called a bipartisan caucus that will introduce proposals to stop what they described as the Biden administration’s “open border policies” that are permitting fentanyl supplies to flow into the United States.
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.