Johnnie Curtis Stevens of Norco was ordered to stand trial in the death of 40-year-old Jason Schmuch.
A man accused of supplying a deadly dose of fentanyl to a 40-year-old Norco resident must stand trial for second-degree murder, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Johnnie Curtis Stevens, 40, of Norco was arrested in April following a months-long Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the death of Jason Schmuch.
At the end of a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Randall Stamen ruled there was sufficient evidence to bound Stevens over for trial on the murder count and scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for Aug. 30 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
The defendant is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Liebrand, on the morning of Nov. 19, 2023, deputies were called to the intersection of Roundup Road and Stagecoach Drive to investigate reports of a comatose man.
Schmuch was pronounced dead at the scene, Liebrand said.
“Deputies located evidence indicative of a fentanyl overdose,” he said.
The sheriff’s Overdose Death Investigations & Narcotics Unit was assigned to the case after it was confirmed “Schmuch died as a result of fentanyl poisoning,” according to the sergeant.
An initial search warrant was served at Stevens’ property in the 5000 block of Trail Street less than a day after the victim’s death. Liebrand said deputies seized “fentanyl, methamphetamine and (drug) paraphernalia” at the location.
Investigators additionally discovered the defendant’s daughter, whose identity wasn’t released, “had access to the narcotics,” Liebrand alleged. Stevens was initially booked into jail only for child endangerment, and he posted bail soon afterward.
The ODIN Unit’s investigation continued, culminating in sufficient evidence to seek a murder charge against the defendant, which prosecutors filed in mid-April.
Stevens has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County. His connection to the victim was not disclosed.
Since February 2021, more than two dozen individuals countywide have been charged with murder in connection with fentanyl poisonings.
In November, prosecutors closed the books on the county’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34- year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman. District Attorney Mike Hestrin said it was the first fentanyl murder conviction in the state.
According to public health statistics, there were 550 known fentanyl- related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 9% increase from 2022, when there were 503.
Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the drug is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.
Fentanyl is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.
