LOS ANGELES
A Lompoc man was found guilty by a jury Friday of aiding and abetting the distribution of fentanyl that resulted in the death of a fellow inmate at a Santa Barbara County jail.
Kaelen Jacobkeali Wendel was also found guilty of serious bodily injury to another jail inmate.
Wendel, 32, was also found guilty of one count of distribution of fentanyl, resulting in death and serious bodily injury. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on June 21.
According to evidence presented at a five-day trial, in October 2022, Wendel smuggled fentanyl into a unit of the Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail. He packaged the powerful synthetic opioid in candy containers, according to court documents.
As the new inmate, Wendel handed some fentanyl to his co-defendant, Michael Villapania, 36, of Lompoc, in the expectation that he would receive jail commissary goods in exchange.
Villapania then sold the drug to a victim identified in court documents as “J.V.” J.V. then shared the fentanyl with another victim, who is identified in court documents as “E.E.”
After ingesting the drug during the early morning hours of October 20, 2022, E.E. and J.V. overdosed.
After an inmate alerted a custody deputy about the overdose, deputies and nurses administered multiple doses of Narcan – a life-saving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses – and performed CPR on both inmates.
They revived J.V., but E.E. died.
Villapania pleaded guilty on Feb. 1 to one count of distribution of fentanyl. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 7. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
The DEA and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office investigated this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Suria M. Bahadue of the Criminal Appeals Section and Assistant United States Attorneys Alexandra Sloan Kelly and Kenneth R. Carbajal of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.