A 39-year-old man who supplied a deadly dose of fentanyl to a Palm Desert resident was bound for state prison Friday after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Gregory Michael Gauto of Palm Desert admitted the felony count under a plea agreement Thursday with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for Gauto’s admission, prosecutors dropped a second-degree murder charge against him. During a hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, Superior Court Judge Gregory Olson certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the stipulated sentence.
According to the sheriff’s department, on the morning of Sept. 26, 2022, deputies were sent to an apartment in the 46-900 block of Highway 74, near Highway 111 in south Palm Desert, to investigate reports of a comatose man…