Man sentenced to prison for giving fatal pill to 17-year-old

A 23-year-old man was sentenced to at least four years in prison on Wednesday for giving a 17-year-old Las Vegas girl the pill that led to her fatal overdose.

Joshua Roberts, 23, initially faced a murder charge in the February 2021 death of Mia Gugino, but he pleaded guilty in January to voluntary manslaughter and sale of a controlled substance. Roberts is one of a handful of people prosecutors have charged with murder in recent years in connection with fatal fentanyl overdoses, although none of the defendants have gone to trial or been convicted of a murder charge.

Mia Gugino’s father, Lee Gugino, told District Judge Michelle Leavitt on Wednesday that the case has taken a toll on his family and has forced him to prepare to move away from Las Vegas.

“We’ve been the poster family now for two and a half years for fentanyl, so we’ve done everything we can to stop this drug,” Lee Gugino said during Roberts’ sentencing hearing. “We’re moving. I don’t think it’s fair for my family to be in a city with a murderer pushing poison on people.”

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Schwartzer said Mia Gugino went to Roberts because she wanted to try MDMA, also known as ecstasy, but he ended up giving her a pill laced with fentanyl.

Hours after she took the pill from Roberts, Lee Gugino found his daughter unresponsive in her room. He recalled attempting to give her CPR as blood poured from her mouth.

Leavitt sentenced Roberts to between four and 10 years in prison on Wednesday. Roberts was led out of the packed courtroom in handcuffs, as dozens of Lee Gugino’s friends, family members and supporters watched.

In prior interviews with the Review-Journal, Lee Gugino said his daughter was a freshman at the College of Southern Nevada who helped him coach the students he taught at Tarr Elementary School. He said Wednesday that his daughter loved to play soccer and was “everybody’s best friend.”

In a text message to the Review-Journal, Lee Gugino said he wants stricter sentences for people convicted of selling drugs that lead to someone’s death.

“One of these fentanyl pills will kill you, Mia thought she was trying Ecstasy for the first time, instead she was given fentanyl, it’s a death pill,” Lee Gugino said in a text message.

Roberts’ public defender, Kathleen Hamers, asked for her client to be sentenced to probation instead of prison. She said the evidence did not conclusively show if the fentanyl in Mia Gugino’s system was from the pills she took from Roberts.

She said that Roberts has taken responsibility for the teenager’s death, although he did not intend to harm her.

“There’s no question what happened was he did provide her with pills that killed her,” she said.

The Clark County coroner’s office ruled Mia Gugino’s death an accident due to fentanyl, MDMA and ethanol toxicity.

Roberts turned and faced Mia Gugino’s family when he was asked to give a statement during the hearing.

“I just want to apologize to all of you,” he said.

Schwartzer said that according to Mia Gugino’s phone records and text conversations, she first took ecstasy from Roberts, then returned to his home hours later and got the pill that led to her overdose.

“That’s the mistake she made — she trusted this individual, and in return for that trust, she ended up dying,” Schwartzer said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.