A 26-year-old San Jacinto man who supplied a fatal dose of fentanyl to an acquaintance pleaded guilty today to voluntary manslaughter.
Samuel Leo Mussaw admitted the felony count, as well as a charge of possession of controlled substances for sale, under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admissions, prosecutors dropped a second-degree murder charge against Mussaw.
Superior Court Judge Jorge Hernandez scheduled a sentencing hearing for Feb. 13 at the Banning Justice Center. The indicated term of imprisonment under the plea deal is 12 years in state prison.
Mussaw is being held without bail at the Benoit Detention Center in Indio.
He provided a quantity of fentanyl that claimed the life of 23-year-old Adam Young on March 4, 2021. According to Sgt. Rick Espinoza of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, deputies and paramedics were called to the 900 block of Cypress Drive, near Malaga Drive, that afternoon to investigate a possible drug overdose. Espinoza said Young was found unconscious and unresponsive in his house, and first responders tried but failed to revive him.