A 10-time convicted felon from the Antelope Valley has been arrested on federal charges alleging he distributed fentanyl that caused the overdose deaths of four people at a Palmdale house last year, officials announced Friday.
Damian Michael Evans, 46, of Palmdale was arrested Thursday and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Evans is charged with distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, and other drug and gun charges.
According to the indictment, Evans distributed fentanyl, the use of which resulted in the deaths of four victims in Palmdale in January 2024. He allegedly also possessed other illegal narcotics in late 2023 and early 2024, including after the four fatal fentanyl overdoses in Palmdale, the DOJ said.
Authorities allege Evans also illegally possessed a revolver and ammunition in furtherance of his drug trafficking activities. He is not legally permitted to possess them because his criminal history includes convictions dating from 1997 to 2016 in Los Angeles Superior Court for 10 felonies — nine of them drug-related convictions and most of them for drug dealing, federal prosecutors said.
If convicted of all charges, Evans would face a mandatory minimum of 25 years in federal prison up to life imprisonment, prosecutors noted.