Sheriff investigates former California lawmaker's fentanyl overdose

Lina PortmanJune 1, 2024

0 4 minutes read

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department has confirmed it is still investigating the death of former Coachella Valley State Deputy Brian Nestande, who succumbed to a fatal dose of fentanyl and cocaine.

The sheriff's department declined to reveal what aspects of the death it was investigating, and county prosecutors said no charges had been filed. In previous cases, Riverside County Prosecutor Mike Hestrin brought murder charges against people who provided lethal doses of fentanyl.

A full autopsy report from the county coroner, obtained by The Desert Sun, sheds more light on Nestande's death and how it was discovered.

And this case highlights the widespread nature of the fentanyl epidemic.

Coachella mayor and others found body

The autopsy report details how Nestande's body was found by a group of his friends, including Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez, who is also the chief of staff to Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez.

Hernandez told a sheriff's deputy that he and a group of friends went to Nestande's Palm Desert home to check on him after having lunch together and learned that none of them had heard from Nestande for several days.

Hernandez said he last saw Nestande three days before, when they met for breakfast with other friends, at which point Hernandez thought Nestande looked healthy.

Hernandez and his friends entered the house through an unlocked back door and found Nestande unconscious on the floor in a room that appeared to have been set up as an office.

The cause of death listed in the autopsy report is “Multiple substance intoxication (Fentanyl, Cocaine). »

Forensic pathologist Scott A. Luzi wrote that toxicology tests showed a synthetic form of fentanyl and a metabolite of cocaine in Nestande's blood. Luzi added that Nestande's death was the result of a “cardiac arrhythmia” caused by the drugs. He also wrote that Nestande's body showed signs of hypertension and heart disease, which may have contributed to his death.

The report says Hernandez and Nestande's wife, Gina Nestande, told the coroner that Nestande's family had a history of heart problems. However, Gina said she did not know Nestande suffered from heart problems, although she said he did not see a doctor regularly.

Nestande had high levels of fentanyl in his blood

Wendy Hetherington, who works on overdose awareness for the Riverside University Health System, said the amount of fentanyl detected in Nestande's blood was significantly above the therapeutic fentanyl level of 0.2 ng per milliliter. The therapeutic level, she explained, is the amount deemed safe to prescribe by doctors to manage pain.

The toxicology report conducted after Nestande's autopsy indicates that her blood contained fentanyl at a concentration of 13.6 nanograms (ng) per milliliter of fentanyl and 5.0 ng per milliliter of norfentanyl, which she described as this in what fentanyl turns into when it has been processed by the body. .

Hetherington, the health system's head of epidemiology and program evaluation, said the fact that the two numbers are relatively close suggests the body has had some time to process fentanyl, while a level A lower level of norfentanyl would indicate that a person died more quickly after ingesting fentanyl. . However, she cautioned that there is no way to determine, from the autopsy report alone, how much fentanyl Nestande ingested, when it was ingested or why.

She said there is also nothing in the report that shows whether the fentanyl and cocaine were contained in any other substance Nestande ingested. The report does not directly mention any evidence of the discovery of fentanyl or cocaine in Nestande's home.

Fentanyl use is a widespread social problem

Although Hetherington said the autopsy report alone does not provide clear answers about the circumstances that led Nestande to ingest these drugs, she said the current fentanyl overdose crisis is one that has an impact on many layers of society.

“It's not just about people who are living on the streets or a chronic person with a very serious drug addiction,” said Hetherington, who oversees the health system's Overdose Data to Action program.

Instead, she said overdoses often result from people taking substances whose composition they don't know, posing a risk any time someone buys fentanyl from a non-pharmaceutical source. . She cited a recent survey from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that found that a third of American adults know someone who died of a drug overdose and another survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) which revealed that 50% of adults admit to having used illicit drugs in their lifetime and 25% report having used them in 2022.

“Everybody knows somebody,” she said of the prevalence of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs.

Fentanyl, in particular, is dangerous because of its extreme toxicity, which is part of the reason it has become popular among those who make illegal drugs, because drug makers must add less of it than comparable drugs to produce the same effects.

DA has taken an aggressive stance on fentanyl

Although the sheriff's office confirmed that an investigation was underway into Nestande's death, it declined to provide further details on the specific topics of the investigation. Sheriff's spokeswoman Sergeant Wenndy Brito-Gonzalez declined to say whether investigators were looking into who provided Nestande with the drugs.

A spokesman for County Attorney John Hall's office said the office has not received any complaints from law enforcement regarding Nestande's death. Hestrin, the elected prosecutor, has been a vocal advocate for the need to “get tough” on people who supply fentanyl and said his office pursues murder charges when appropriate.

In November, a Murrieta jury became the first in the state to find a defendant guilty of murder in such a case. Prosecutors said the defendant, Vicente Romero, shared a pill with a 26-year-old woman, Kelsey King, who died of an overdose.

“This verdict demonstrates our unwavering commitment to protecting our communities, providing justice for victims, and holding accountable those who engage in the distribution of illicit fentanyl resulting in death,” Hestrin said at the time.

'Like a brother'

Meanwhile, those who knew Nestande continue to remember him while coping with his loss.

Hernandez told the Desert Sun that he was “like a brother” and “a great man” whose impact on him and the community endures.

Among Nestande's many roles in politics, he worked as chief of staff to then-U.S. Representative Mary Bono from 1998 to 2000. Nestande previously managed the campaign of Sonny Bono, who was married to Mary until to his death in a skiing accident in 1998. She succeeded him by representing a district that included the Coachella Valley in Congress.

Mary Bono said Friday that former staffers who worked for her and Sonny would gather in Washington this weekend for a reunion and celebration of Nestande.

Desert Sun staff writer Tom Coulter contributed to this report.

Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development and business in the Coachella Valley. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and email him at [email protected].

Lina Portman

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