Editor’s note: This article, originally published at 11:27 a.m. on Nov. 12, 2024, was updated at 6:38 p.m. on Nov. 13, 2024, to add comments from Evelin Cabrera’s attorney, Samuel Elira Sr.
A 20-year-old woman who sold the pills that led to the fentanyl-related death of a 19-year-old from Gaithersburg in 2022, was sentenced Friday to four years in prison, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said Friday in a statement.
Evelin Cabrera, of an unknown address, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter during an Oct. 31 court hearing, the statement said. On Friday, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Harry Storm sentenced Cabrera to 10 years in prison, suspending all but four years, and five years of supervised probation after her release.
Cabrera is being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds, according to court records.
Samuel Elira Sr., Cabrera’s attorney, told MoCo360 in a Tuesday evening phone call that while Cabrera took the plea of involuntary manslaughter, he believed the prosecution did not have sufficient evidence to prove she distributed any fentanyl to Pineda-Romero. Nonetheless, Elira said he respected the legal process and the court’s ruling.
Regarding Cabrera’s four-year prison sentence, Elira said it was “a little excessive.” He said Cabrera was an “engaged citizen in the community” and did not have a prior drug-related charges on her record. He also noted that at the time of the incident she was “just shy of 18” and said she was influenced by the individual she was dating at the time.
Elira acknowledged the severity of the fentanyl overdose epidemic in the country and said there was a “crisis.” He add that during the hearing he sent his condolences to Pineda-Romero’s family on behalf of Cabrera and himself.
“Daniel was an amazing son that unfortunately took the wrong path to obtain painkillers,” Pineda-Romero’s mother said of her son according to the state’s attorney’s office statement. “He trusted the wrong person which led to his death. He was an amazing brother, son, and friend.”
Gaithersburg’s Daniel Pineda-Romero was pronounced dead by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) paramedics on Dec. 10, 2022, after they were called to his home for a “working code,” according to the charging documents. The term is used to describe a person in cardiac arrest who has stopped breathing and whom someone is attempting to resuscitate.
Paramedics responded to the teen’s home just before at 7:56 p.m. and spoke to Pineda-Romero’s brother upon arrival. The brother told MCFRS crews that he had last talked to his brother at 2 a.m. on Dec. 10 and saw his brother sleeping earlier that afternoon, according to the charging documents.
Before calling 911, the brother tried to wake the teen and felt that Pineda-Romero was “cold to the touch,” the documents state. Just after 8 p.m., paramedics pronounced the teen dead.
According to charging documents, the brother told paramedics that Pineda-Romero “had an issue with Percocet in the past” and he had seen Pineda-Romero crush and snort a white pill about a month earlier. Percocet is an opioid pain relief medication.
The brother “was under the impression [Pineda-Romero] had not used since that original time a month ago,” the documents state.
Toxicology results for Pineda-Romera were positive for fentanyl intoxication and the manner of death was undetermined, according to charging documents.
Following an investigation of Pineda-Romero’s death, county police arrested Cabrera, who had been in contact with the teen hours before his death, according to the charging documents. Detectives seized the teen’s cell phone and found text and social media messages between the two coordinating a location in Silver Spring for the teen to purchase pills.
The charging documents included messages between Cabrera and Pineda-Romero discussing the pick-up location as well as the pricing and dosing of the pills. Around 1 a.m. on Dec. 10, 2022, Pineda asked, “Just to be sure they the high dose ones right?”
According to digital court records, an arrest warrant for Cabrera was filed on May 30, 2023. She was arrested on May 2, 2024, and later ordered to be held without bond by Maryland District Court Judge Rand Gelber.
Cabrera does not have any other prior drug cases, according to Maryland court records.
Cabrera’s sentencing marked the second circuit court case Friday dealing with charges resulting from the overdose death of a county teen that involved fentanyl intoxication. Cesar Alexander Lopez, 24, of Hyattsville, pleaded guilty in Circuit Court to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the death of Aiden Vining of Chevy Chase, according to a statement from the state’s attorney’s office. Lopez faces up to 10 years in prison.
According to Maryland Department of Health data, drug overdose deaths are down in the county, but fentanyl remains the leading cause of overdoses.
From January through September 2024, there were 57 overdose deaths in the county, according to the data presented by local health officials to the County Council in October. Thirty-five of those deaths were related to fentanyl. All the overdose deaths were of men and none involved anyone under the age of 25.
While the year isn’t over, the data shows a decline from 2023, which saw 130 overdose deaths. There also have been fewer calls for emergency medical services (EMS) for overdoses and the administration of Naloxone, an overdose reversal drug.
In 2023, 73% of all overdose deaths in the county involved fentanyl, according to state data. While this is a slight decline from 2021, in which fentanyl accounted for 79% of overdose deaths, it still shows an upward trend. For comparison, in 2015, just 24% of overdose deaths involved fentanyl.
— MoCo360 reporter Ginny Bixby contributed to this report.
