At the request of his attorney, arraignment was postponed Monday for a man accused of supplying a deadly dose of fentanyl to a 40-year-old Norco resident.
Johnnie Curtis Stevens, 40, of Norco, was arrested Wednesday following a months-long Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the death last year of Jason Schmuch.
Stevens made his initial court appearance Friday and returned to the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday morning, when his newly appointed public defender requested a delay in proceedings for reasons unspecified in court minutes. Superior Court Judge Gary Polk granted the motion, resetting the arraignment to June 10.
Stevens is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Liebrand, on the morning of Nov. 19, 2023, patrol deputies were called to the intersection of Roundup Road and Stagecoach Drive to investigate reports of a comatose man.
Schmuch was pronounced dead at the scene, Liebrand said.
“Deputies located evidence indicative of a fentanyl overdose,” the sergeant said.
He said the sheriff’s Overdose Death Investigations & Narcotics Unit was assigned to the case after it was confirmed “Schmuch died as a result of fentanyl poisoning.”
An initial search warrant was served at Stevens’ property in the 5000 block of Trail Street less than a day after the victim’s death. Liebrand said deputies seized “fentanyl, methamphetamine and (drug) paraphernalia” at the location.
Investigators additionally discovered the defendant’s daughter, whose identity wasn’t released, “had access to the narcotics,” Liebrand alleged.
Stevens was initially booked into jail only for child endangerment, and he posted bail soon afterward.
The ODIN Unit’s investigation continued, culminating in sufficient evidence to seek a murder charge against the defendant, which prosecutors filed Friday.
Stevens has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County. His connection to the victim was not disclosed.
Since February 2021, more than two dozen individuals countywide have been charged with murder in connection with fentanyl poisonings.
In November, prosecutors closed the books on the county’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34-year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman.
Preliminary data released by the Department of Public Health earlier this year showed there were 388 confirmed fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 23% decline from 2022, when there were 503.
Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the drug is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.
Fentanyl is 80-100 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.