A college sophomore approached Brandon McDowell in 2019 and requested to purchase the prescription opioid Percocet.
False pills mixed with the synthetic narcotic fentanyl—a lethal dose as low as 2 milligrams—were what the young man offered her instead. Alexandra Capelouto, also twenty years old, was found dead in her house in Temecula, California, a few hours afterward.
More than 74,000 individuals died in the United States from a synthetic opioid in 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it an increasingly prevalent occurrence. Fentanyl overdoses have surpassed all other causes of death for adolescents in the last five years.
Convicted of possessing fentanyl, McDowell has been incarcerated since 2022. In any case, the Capeloutos have successfully sued him for their daughter’s death and obtained a new $5.8 million verdict.
“The war is still ahead of us,” declared Alexandra Capelouto’s father, Matt. “The fight against drug traffickers’ impunity for human casualties is far from over.”
To the best of his knowledge, this is the first instance where a drug dealer has been held civilly responsible for someone’s death, according to Baruch Cohen, the lawyer for the Capeloutos.
“Here’s hoping that this judgment will make a global splash, so to speak,” Cohen stated. “Maybe the drug dealer will think twice if he knows that in addition to the prison term, he could be held financially responsible for millions of dollars’ worth of damages if this prevents another drug deal from happening.”
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McCoy, who is now 25 years old, initially entered a guilty plea in a federal court in California in 2022 on charges of possessing with the intent to distribute fentanyl. Conviction on these charges carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years if they are found to be associated with death or serious damage. McDowell received a nine-year prison term.
That wasn’t enough, according to Alexandra Capelouto’s dad, Matt. His decision to sue McDowell for wrongful death was influenced by his wife’s battle with stage four breast cancer, which she was also diagnosed with that year.
He argued that the penalty was unfair because it was for the taking of a life. “I was determined to use all available means to ensure that justice was served.”
A judgment of around $5 million was won by the Capeloutos against McDowell, who was also filing for bankruptcy. His sale of dangerous drugs to Alexandra Capelouto was determined to have been “willful and malicious” in the Riverside County Superior Court. To make sure McDowell couldn’t use bankruptcy to get out of his debt, the Capeloutos filed a second case in federal bankruptcy court a few months later.
Cohen made it clear that bankruptcy is not meant for dishonest or criminally motivated debtors. We will garnish his earnings whenever he does make money, and this judgment will follow him around forever. We will place a lien on the property when he makes the purchase.
The Capeloutos were awarded $5.8 million by Judge Mark Houle in their case against Brandon McDowell. This sum includes $5 million initially, plus interest for six months.
Matt Capelouto established the nonprofit Stop Drug Homicide after his daughter’s death so that he could speak out for families and encourage lawmakers to pass stricter laws on drug traffickers. The first is Alexandra’s Law, which would make it a crime to sell drugs to anyone with a history of convictions; it would also make it clear that anyone caught distributing narcotics that caused someone else’s death might face murder charges.
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Capelouto noted that proving a drug dealer’s awareness that their wares could cause death is a significant burden for prosecutors in California when trying to prosecute them with a person’s death. If someone dies as a result of using narcotics that a convicted drug dealer supplied, the admonition could be used as evidence in future instances involving the same dealer. Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime ballot proposition, includes Alexandra’s Law. In November, Californians will have the opportunity to cast their ballots.
A total of sixty families, including Capelouto, are suing Snapchat for its alleged involvement in the distribution of dangerous drugs. The transaction between Alexandra Capelouto and Brandon McDowell, in which she purchased medicines, took place over Snapchat.
It is unjust for Brandon to shoulder all the guilt, according to his father, Justin McDowell. He explained that he didn’t live with his kid when he was in rehab for drug addiction since he had younger children.
In no world does my son distribute drugs. Each of them was a user. “They were both addicted,” he remarked. “He was a dimwitted youth of twenty.”
According to Justin McDowell, he was underfunded and unable to defend his kid in court when the Capeloutos sued him, and he felt the family was out for revenge. During the litigation, Brandon McDowell was incarcerated in the San Pedro federal prison and lacked legal representation to defend himself in either the civil or bankruptcy courts.
“That shouldn’t be allowed; it’s sad,” Justin McDowell stated. “The child will never earn $5.8 million in his lifetime. We will wait for his release from prison, embrace him, and figure out a way to handle the situation.”
According to Matt Capelouto, his daughter did not exhibit any signs of drug abuse, and Brandon McDowell’s addiction does not excuse him from his culpability in her demise.
“When you transition from being a drug user to a drug dealer, there comes a point when you no longer need help—you need to be held accountable,” he stated.
