Kaelen Jacobkeali Wendel, 32, of Lompoc was sentenced this Friday to 20 years in prison for distributing fentanyl that led to the overdose death of a fellow inmate and nonfatal OD of another at Santa Barbara County’s Northern Branch Jail in 2022.
On October 19, 2022, Wendel, who was being booked into jail on outstanding property warrants, smuggled fentanyl into his housing unit, according to the investigation conducted by the Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Wendel then gave some of the fentanyl to his co-defendant, Michael Villapania, 36, of Lompoc, in the expectation that he would receive jail commissary goods in exchange.
Villapania — who had been arrested on outstanding probation warrant, a property crime warrant, and a warrant for bringing narcotics into jail — proceeded to sell the drug to a victim identified in court documents as “JV,” who then shared the fentanyl with his cellmate, 37-year-old Edgar Estrada of Santa Maria, who was being held on a felony charge of obstructing a peace officer and various misdemeanors.
JV and Estrada overdosed on the fentanyl in the early-morning hours of October 20, 2022. An inmate alerted custody deputies, who with the help of nurses administered multiple doses of the overdose-reversing drug Narcan and performed CPR. While they were able to revive JV, Estrada died from his overdose.
Villapania pleaded guilty on February 1 to one count of distribution of fentanyl and was sentenced on June 10 to seven years in federal prison. Wendel was found guilty by a jury this March of one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death and serious bodily injury.
“[Wendel] committed a serious offense that ended in a tragedy,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “He smuggled fentanyl into a jail unit, killing [Estrada] and nearly killing JV. He created a market for fentanyl where there was none.”
