A 62-year-old man from Portland showed up in federal court on Thursday on charges of providing fentanyl that resulted in three overdoses, including a fatal one, in an apartment over the weekend.
Early on Sunday morning, two women and one guy were discovered in a Clackamas Trails apartment in Southeast Portland, unconscious and not breathing.
According to a federal affidavit, one of the three women passed away, but the other two were brought back to life with numerous Narcan dosages and emergency medical care. None of them have been identified by authorities.
According to a federal affidavit, the woman who survived claimed that she and two friends used cocaine after purchasing what she believed to be cocaine from O Donnell at his residence on Southeast Ellis Street early on Sunday.
The address where the woman purchased the narcotic was given to the police by one of the recovered individuals.
It is alleged that William James O’Donnell distributed a restricted substance that included a measurable level of fentanyl, which caused fatalities and severe injuries.
In an attempt to keep O Donnell in custody, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin sent a memo to U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie A. Russo stating that death merits detention. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a potential sentence of life in prison if found guilty.
Kerin contended that O’Donnell is a current drug user and has a history of drug distribution. Kerin stated that he shouldn’t be let to hurt any more people. He pointed out that the deceased was in her late 20s and had a daughter who was 9 years old.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Conor Huseby, who is O’Donnell’s attorney, did not challenge his ongoing imprisonment.
According to a federal affidavit, Clackamas County firemen and sheriff’s deputies arrived at the Clackamas Trails Apartments on Southeast Cook Street at approximately 4 a.m. on Sunday and started life-saving procedures right away. The affidavit states that paramedics administered multiple doses of Narcan, the overdose-reversal medication, to all three and conducted cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the woman who was declared dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital.
Investigators discovered a white powdered material in a plastic bindle inside the unit. According to the affidavit, the material tested positive for fentanyl using a portable testing device.
Investigators learned from one of the survivors that she and her friend consumed cocaine on Saturday night. After running out of the drug, her friend contacted one of her regular sources for the drug but that source was out so the friend contacted another person, who led her to O Donnell, according to the affidavit.
In the affidavit, FBI agent Bobby Gutierrez stated that the two drove to O Donnell’s house to purchase further cocaine. Others were smoking a substance on foil in the kitchen when they got there, he wrote.
O Donnell packed about a half of a gram or one gram of purported cocaine for them and her friend promised to pay him later, according to the affidavit.
The woman who survived said shesnorted the drug and noticed the smell was different from any of her past experiences with cocaine use and she immediately did not feel right, the affidavit said.
She became dizzy and fell backward but was caught by another person and the next thing she remembered was waking up in the ambulance. She was told by medical staff that she wasn t breathing when emergency responders arrived at the apartment and she was lucky to be alive.
Investigators discovered police had received several complaints within the past year about suspected drug activity at O Donnell s home in the 8100 block of Southeast Ellis Street. They found a neighbor s security video footage that showed the two women arriving at the house early Sunday and staying for less than 30 minutes,according to the affidavit.
On Tuesday, police stopped O Donnell as he sat in a passenger seat of a blue Volvo sedan outside his home. They found a bag containing a white powdery substance and a brown bindle in the carand a glass jar with white powder in his right pants pocket,the affidavit said.
He declined to speak to police but another person in the car told investigators that he was O Donnell s caregiver and that O Donnell was alerted to an overdose and wanted to leave the home due to stress, the affidavit said. The caregiver told police that O Donnell was a heroin and cocaine user who typically used fentanyl test strips to test his drugs, the court document said.
Inside the home, investigators found0.2 grams of cocaine, fentanyl testing strips and Narcan, according to the affidavit.
O Donnell was arrested by the FBI and booked into Multnomah County Detention Center at 10:22 p.m. Tuesday on a federal hold. He has prior convictions for delivery and conspiracy to deliver heroin, burglary and driving under the influence of intoxicants in Oregon.
Oregon recorded the second-largest increase in overdose deaths of any state in 2023, even as most of the nation saw a decline, according to federal data. State figures show 1,833 people died in Oregon from a drug overdose last year, compared to 1,383 in 2022, 1,189 in 2021, 824 in 2020 and 626 in 2019.Early, incomplete figures from 2024 suggest a slight decrease in overdose deaths in Oregon in 2024, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, [email protected], follow her on X@maxoregonian, or onLinkedIn.
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