Man sentenced to prison for selling 20-year-old woman deadly drugs

A 24-year-old man was sentenced to prison on Wednesday for selling fentanyl that led to a young woman’s fatal overdose.

“I am so tired — literally tired — of seeing dead kids from fentanyl,” District Judge Jacqueline Bluth said before sentencing Christopher Gonzalez to between four and 10 years in prison.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty in August to felony counts of voluntary manslaughter and sale of a controlled substance. He is one of several people charged with murder in connection with overdose deaths in Clark County in recent years.

In February, prosecutors charged Gonzalez and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Tylar Hager, with second-degree murder in connection with the death of 20-year-old Avianna Cavanaugh. Hager later agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to violate the Uniformed Controlled Substances Act after testifying against Gonzalez during a grand jury hearing in March. She is set to be sentenced in November.

Hager testified that Gonzalez sold Cavanaugh pressed pills that he knew contained fentanyl, and that she helped him sell up to 1,400 pills a week, according to transcripts of the grand jury hearing.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Schwartzer said Wednesday that Gonzalez continued to sell pills containing fentanyl even after Cavanaugh died on March 18, 2021.

The month following Cavanaugh’s death, Gonzalez was arrested after he was found with “a small amount of cocaine and numerous pills,” the prosecutor wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

‘His actions will get worse’

Gonzalez was arrested twice in June 2021 after he was found with fentanyl, and he was arrested on Oct. 18 on suspicion of domestic battery, according to the memorandum. On Oct. 26, police pulled Gonzalez over after he was driving with a “dangling” headlight and arrested him after they found oxycodone pills and a gun with an altered serial number, according to an arrest report.

“Mr. Gonzalez has shown during the course of that year, 2021, that he doesn’t have remorse for what occurred, and his actions will get worse and worse and worse,” Schwartzer said during the sentencing hearing. “And it’s only by the grace of God we don’t have more deaths on Mr. Gonzalez for selling all those pills out in our community.”

Some of the drug charges Gonzalez picked up during 2021 were dismissed by the district attorney’s office, while others are set to be dismissed as part of a plea agreement for the case involving the altered gun, which is separate from the case surrounding Cavanaugh’s death, Schwartzer wrote in court documents.

On Wednesday, District Judge Tierra Jones sentenced Gonzalez to between one year, seven months and four years in prison for ownership or possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. Gonzalez received 352 days of credit for time already spent in custody and will begin the sentence Bluth imposed in Cavanaugh’s death after completing the sentence in the gun case.

Gonzalez told Bluth on Wednesday that he was selling drugs at the time of Cavanaugh’s death to further his own addiction. He apologized to Cavanaugh’s family and said he never intended to hurt her.

“This drug, really, it destroys lives,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez’s attorney, Garrett Ogata, asked that the defendant be placed on probation for the manslaughter case. He said Gonzalez dreams of working to help others with substance abuse when he gets out of prison.

“I really do believe that he has turned this corner, and he will likely make something really, really positive out of all this,” Ogata said.

Cavanaugh’s family members who spoke during the hearing all asked the judge to sentence Gonzalez to prison. Cavanaugh, who would have turned 22 this week, loved to paint and dreamed of being a makeup artist one day, her family said.

‘This has become an epidemic’

After the hearing, Cavanaugh’s grandmother said the family was satisfied with the sentence.

“Of course it doesn’t bring her back, but hopefully no one else has to die,” said the woman, Diane Esposito Howard.

According to Gonzalez’s arrest report, Cavanaugh’s family had gathered to stage an intervention about her drug use less than 24 hours before her death.

Cavanaugh was part of a circle of friends struck by four fatal overdoses during a five-month period beginning in October 2020, part of a growing number of fentanyl deaths that have afflicted Nevada in recent years.

Aria Styron, 21, was sentenced to probation in May for selling laced oxycodone pills that led to the death of Cavanaugh’s friend 21-year-old Adrianna Folks.

Attorneys and Cavanaugh’s relatives asked the judge to set an example with Gonzalez’s sentence because of the high number of fentanyl deaths in Clark County. Bluth told Gonzalez that while she believes he is not a bad person, his actions “have grave, grave consequences.”

“This has become an epidemic. This has become something that is so much bigger than anyone ever saw,” Bluth said. “In this punishment that I am about to render upon you, I do think that your actions deserve it, but a message does have to be set as well.”

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