SAN JOSE — A one-time pharmacy worker whose state credential was revoked after stealing narcotics from his employer is now facing a murder charge for allegedly selling cocaine secretly laced with fentanyl to a South Bay woman who died from an overdose last year.
Benjamin Nathan Williams, 34, of San Jose, was charged Friday with one count of murder and a felony drug sales count in connection with the Feb. 13, 2023 death of 25-year-old Hope Noel Warrick at her home in unincorporated Morgan Hill.
Williams is being held in the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas in lieu of $71,000 bail. He was scheduled to be arraigned on the murder charge Monday.
The criminal complaint containing the charges accuses Williams of telling Warrick through Instagram the previous night that he had included an unspecified addition to the cocaine he was selling her. An investigative summary written by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office states that they obtained messages that “clearly indicated that (suspect) Williams sold (victim) Hope what she believed was cocaine and added in some extra for her.”
Sometime after, an apparently concerned Warrick conducted an internet search on “how to tell if there is fentnynl (sic) in something”
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said that tells him Warrick realized she was in trouble; she died a few hours later. He added that given the potency of fentanyl, particularly in its lethality with just the first or second use, elevates the criminal liability of such cases.
“The victim did not ask for fentanyl, and did not know there would be fentanyl,” Rosen said in an interview with this news organization. “The way we think about it, she was poisoned.”
Dr. Jamie Chang, UC Berkeley associate professor of Social Welfare, whose research has focused on the impacts of fentanyl in the Bay Area, said she was concerned to hear that cocaine was being laced with fentanyl in the Bay Area. Locally, a lot of the young adult fentanyl deaths recently have been caused by fentanyl-laced Percocet and other pills, not necessarily cocaine, she said. To see it re-enter the cocaine supply is concerning, but the bottom line is that “all street drugs must be tested” using fentanyl test strips that can be purchased online, she said.
On the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2023, Warrick’s mother, who noticed she had not been responding to text messages, checked her studio apartment — located on the same property as the family home — and found her foaming at the mouth, according to the investigation. She died where she lay.
Responding deputies recovered narcotics and drug paraphernalia at the scene, and identified Williams as her likely drug dealer after examining her phone. Sheriff’s detectives obtained a phone that was confiscated from Williams after a 2022 arrest in San Jose, and reportedly discovered messages and photos showing him using and selling fentanyl, as well as evidence of his “knowledge of the dangers of fentanyl.”
Detectives established a clearer link between Williams and Warrick after Williams was arrested last November in Morgan Hill on suspicion of robbery and evading police. The phone he was carrying was seized and examined; it reportedly contained the correspondence between him and the victim on the night she died, according to the investigation.
Those messages, detectives wrote, included a remark that Williams “was adding some more in for her” without specifying what he was adding to the cocaine he was selling her.
Williams attended Cal State Monterey Bay and earned a degree in molecular cell biology. State records show that he obtained a pharmacy technician registration number in 2016, but had it revoked in 2021 by the Board of Pharmacy under the California Department of Consumer Affairs. An investigation had found that Williams was fired from a Walgreens in the Monterey County city of Marina, after stealing hydrocodone, morphine, and other controlled substances.
About a month after he was fired, Williams was criminally charged and eventually pleaded to a misdemeanor, according to Monterey County court records. Friday’s murder complaint states that Williams was known to sell drugs, including to Warrick, in baggies with the Walgreens logo on them.
Rosen said Williams’ background as a pharmacy technician strengthens the murder case against him.
“This guy knows how dangerous fentanyl is, is fired for being a drug dealer, and continues to deal fentanyl,” he said. “We’re done with him.”
Murder charges for people accused of selling fentanyl-laced drugs to overdose victims are relatively rare but becoming more visible as the country combats a flood of opioid deaths and addiction. One of the earliest instances in Santa Clara County was in 2020: A man used Snapchat to sell what his buyer believed were Percocet pills but were laced with fentanyl, leading to the death of an 18-year-old Santa Clara woman.
At least four fentanyl-related murder charges have been filed in the county against alleged drug dealers since, though the prospects of murder convictions have been challenging given spirited arguments, in and out of court, over how culpability is shared between a dealer and buyer. For instance, in the 2020 South Bay case, the dealer ended up being convicted of manslaughter.
The debate has made its way into the halls of the California Legislature, which has wrestled between increasing penalties for fatal drug sales and offering more resources and treatment for people whose addictions help fuel the fentanyl economy.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Source: www.mercurynews.com