PUNISHED

Dealer Who Sold Fentanyl-Laced Pill Must Pay $5.8m After Overdose Death

The lawyer for the family who won the case, Baruch Cohen, said that it is, to his knowledge, the first time a drug dealer has been held civilly liable for a overdose death.

Brandon McDowell sold Alexandra Capelouto, a college sophomore, a counterfeit Percocet pill laced with fentanyl in 2019. The 20-year-old from Temecula, California, died from an overdose hours later after unwittingly consuming the dangerous synthetic opioid. Now, McDowell—who has been behind bars for fentanyl possession since 2022—is being ordered to pay $5.8 million to Capelouto’s parents for his role in their daughter’s death. Baruch Cohen, a lawyer for the Capelouto family said that this was, to his knowledge, the first time a drug dealer has been held civilly liable for an overdose death. “We’ve won the battle but not the war,” said Alexandra’s father, Matt. “We still have a long ways to go in terms of holding drug dealers accountable for deaths.” McDowell was sentenced to nine years in prison, but Matt Capelouto felt this punishment wasn’t enough. He filed a wrongful death suit and won the case to the tune of $5.8 million, a ruling which will follow McDowell despite his filing for bankruptcy. “This judgment will haunt him the rest of his life,” Cohen said.