WASHINGTON COUNTY, Oregon — A man was sentenced to prison after selling fentanyl pills that killed a 17-year-old boy in Washington County in 2023.
On May 15, a Washington County Circuit Court judge found 21-year-old Jair Noriega guilty of manslaughter in the second degree and unlawful delivery of a schedule II controlled substance to a minor.
The judge sentenced Noriega to 75 months in prison, according to the Washington County District Attorney's Office. It will run consecutively to a previous sentence of 13 months on separate, domestic violence-related charges for a total of 88 months behind bars, or about seven years.
In June 2023, Noriega sold fentanyl pills twice to the teenage boy. Noriega told the teenager to "take it slow" with the pills after the first deal, the district attorney's office said, because he had put "good money" into making the illegal drugs. A few nights later, Noriega secretly delivered the second round of fentanyl pills to the teenage boy at his home in rural Washington County.
The teenage boy's grandparents found him dead in the kitchen the next morning with drug paraphernalia nearby, the district attorney's office said. There were also two counterfeit fentanyl pills in the teenage boy's bedroom. The medical examiner determined he died of acute fentanyl toxicity.
The Westside Interagency Narcotics Team began their investigation and Noriega was arrested.
The Washington County District Attorney said the verdict in the case is rare, and unlike some states and federal law, Oregon does not have a crime addressing the role drug dealers play in deadly overdoses. The district attorney's office noted that it's aware of two other manslaughter convictions in Oregon where a drug dealer caused a deadly overdose; one case occurred in Washington County and the other in Linn County.
"Holding drug dealers accountable for the harm they cause in our community is a priority," said Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton. "While many of Oregon’s laws were enacted long before the current fentanyl crisis, we are finding ways to apply old laws to new challenges. Sending dangerous drug dealers to prison will save lives."