SAN DIEGO (CNS) — A San Diego man who distributed fentanyl that led to the overdose deaths of two people at a North Park residence was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.
Scott Anthony Sargent, 64, pleaded guilty to a fentanyl distribution charge for providing fentanyl that killed a 40-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man on Nov. 10, 2022, according to prosecutors.
First responders found the victims inside a bedroom, and they were pronounced dead at the scene. Sargent and another person had also used the drugs and were found unresponsive at the home, but they recovered after being treated with Narcan.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said the drugs Sargent distributed were a mix of fentanyl and para-fluorofentanyl, a synthetic opioid analgesic analogue of fentanyl. The same mixture was found in Sargent's backpack and duffel bag at the residence where the fatalities occurred, as well as inside his storage unit, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors argued in their papers that Sargent was selling fentanyl when the deaths occurred, as well as after the fatal overdoses.
Sargent's defense attorney, James Chavez, argued in sentencing papers that Sargent and the other people at the home believed they were using cocaine, not fentanyl.
"While Mr. Sargent bears criminal responsibility for dealing these dangerous substances, the deaths resulted from a tragic mistake about what substance the group was consuming, not from an intentional fentanyl poisoning," the attorney wrote.
