A 39-year-old man who supplied a deadly dose of fentanyl to a Palm Desert resident was bound for state prison Friday after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Gregory Michael Gauto of Palm Desert admitted the felony count under a plea agreement Thursday with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for Gauto’s admission, prosecutors dropped a second-degree murder charge against him. During a hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, Superior Court Judge Gregory Olson certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the stipulated sentence.
According to the sheriff’s department, on the morning of Sept. 26, 2022, deputies were sent to an apartment in the 46-900 block of Highway 74, near Highway 111 in south Palm Desert, to investigate reports of a comatose man.
After deputies and paramedics arrived, the victim, Brandon Brower, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigator Robert Cornett said that an autopsy soon confirmed Brower’s death stemmed from fentanyl poisoning.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by Cornett, detectives examined the victim’s mobile phone data and uncovered messages between Brower and a woman, whose identity was not disclosed, during which the victim asked her to procure fentanyl for him, but she replied that she couldn’t due to being too far away, stuck in traffic.
Cornett said Brower then initiated a text message exchange with Gauto, with whom he’d been acquainted for an unspecified period.
“There were messages consistent with Gregory driving to Brandon’s house to trade fentanyl for Klonopins,” according to the declaration. “The messages show Gregory arrived at Brandon’s house, and he delivered the fentanyl to Brandon. Gregory even tells Brandon to `be careful.”’
Brower had deleted the messages from his phone, but some were recovered by the department’s electronics forensics specialists, the affidavit said.
During a later interview with Gauto, he acknowledged being in Brower’s apartment that morning and got Klonopins from him, Cornett said. The defendant added that one of his friends died from fentanyl.
A warrant search of the defendant’s cell phone revealed he was actually aware two or three of his friends had died from fentanyl poisoning in recent years, leading up to Brower’s death, according to the investigator.
Gauto was charged and arrested without incident on June 7, 2023, near the intersection of Plaza Way and Highway 111 in Palm Desert.
Court records indicate prior convictions, but they weren’t listed.