“The use of fentanyl is destroying lives and families in our state and in our country.  We applaud the efforts by local, state and federal law enforcement officers, as well as prosecutors to hold those who sell fentanyl that results in fatal overdoses accountable.” – CSLEA President Alan Barcelona

SAN DIEGO – On February 8, 2023, Jaimee Ashley Koryn, 34, of San Diego was sentenced in federal court to 130 months in prison for selling the fentanyl pills that resulted in the fatal overdose Sherie Gil, 23, on September 30, 2021. Koryn pleaded guilty in October 2022, admitting that she sold Gil the fentanyl pills that caused her death.

According to the government’s sentencing memo, on the morning of September 30, 2021, law enforcement officers and paramedics responded to a 911 call from a commercial office building in San Diego.  Law enforcement officers found Gil deceased in a bathroom along with drug paraphernalia, Gil’s cell phone, and “blues,” or counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl.  The Medical Examiner’s Office later determined that Gil had died as the result of the “toxic effects of fentanyl, cocaine, and alprazolam.”

During a search of Gil’s cell phone, agents discovered that Gil had exchanged text messages with another phone number asking if she could “pick up” blues on a number of occasions in the days leading up to Gil’s death. During the investigation that followed, law enforcement discovered that the other phone number was registered to Koryn. The text messages also indicated that, on September 29, 2021, Gil again messaged Koryn requesting blues; Koryn sent Gil her address and Gil then responded that she was seven minutes away.

On October 8, 2021, during the execution of a search warrant at Koryn’s residence, law enforcement located and arrested Koryn.

Per the plea agreement, Koryn and the government stipulated that the Sentencing Guidelines for distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and/or serious bodily injury would apply.

Special Agents and Task Force Officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Overdose Response Team (formerly known as Team 10) led the investigation into Gil’s death. This case is the result of ongoing efforts by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the San Diego Police Department, and the California Department of Health Care Services to investigate and prosecute the distribution of dangerous illegal drugs—fentanyl in particular—that result in overdose deaths. In 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration created the Overdose Response Team as a response to the increase in overdose deaths in San Diego County.