DENVER (KDVR) — Following a five-day trial, a jury in Arapahoe County convicted a man of distributing fentanyl resulting in the death of a minor after his operation was busted in an undercover sting.
The investigation was spurred by the death of a 14-year-old Aurora High School student in 2022.
Cesar Eduardo Mejia-Sanabria, 30, was found guilty of two counts of possession of fentanyl with intent to sell and one count of conspiracy to sell/distribute fentanyl.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 1 and he faces a maximum of 16 years in the Department of Corrections.
Previously, Mejia-Sanabria was facing further charges, including three more charges of felony drug distribution, child abuse knowingly and recklessly causing death, and unlawful distribution of a controlled substance to a minor.
“Instead of writing off this case as a tragic overdose, I commend the Aurora Police Department for their in-depth investigative work in identifying a drug dealer selling poison on our streets,” District Attorney John Kellner said in a release announcing the guilty verdict. “In order to save other lives, it’s a priority for my staff and I to go after dealers who push this poison.”
14-year-old’s death opens investigation
Around 1 a.m. on Dec. 11, 2022, when Aurora police officers arrived at a home in the 1500 block of South Naples Street for a report of a suspicious child death.
Upon arrival, officers found an unresponsive 14-year-old boy on the basement floor. An autopsy report showed he had died from fentanyl toxicity, and a forensic audit of the teen’s phone showed a conversation to purchase fentanyl pills on the night he passed away.
Investigators traced the conversation found on the boy’s phone to Mejia-Sanabria. In an undercover capacity, one of the officers texted the drug distributor to purchase some.
They agreed to meet at a nearby department store to exchange $350 for 100 fentanyl pills.
Mejia-Sanabria was arrested during the undercover operation on Dec. 20, 2022, when police confiscated 21.6 grams of fentanyl, or approximately 220 pills, and 5.4 grams of methamphetamine, the department said.
