summary:
The district’s state’s attorney is calling for more education about the dangers of street drugs
A Hyattsville man faces up to 10 years in prison for his role in the October 2023 overdose death of a 17-year-old Chevy Chase boy, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Cesar Alexander Lopez, 24, of Hyattsville pleaded guilty Friday in Montgomery County Circuit Court to manslaughter in the death of Aiden Vining, the state’s attorney’s office said in the release.
Lopez faces up to 10 years in prison and is expected to be sentenced in February, the statement said. Attorney information for Lopez could not be located Saturday in online court records in the state.
According to the statement, a family member who was trying to wake Vining for school found him unresponsive in his bedroom on October 24, 2023.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue crews attempted life-saving measures, but Vining was pronounced dead at the scene. Officers then found “a straw with white residue… and a round blue pill labeled ‘M 30’ in Vining’s purse,” the release said.
Pills of this type are often referred to as “Percocet, percs, erks or 30s on the street,” according to the release.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore performed an autopsy and determined that Vining died of cocaine and fentanyl intoxication.
Lopez was arrested after a county police investigation found phone messages between Lopez and Vining on Oct. 23, 2023, indicating Lopez had arranged for the teen to be sold 10 “Birks,” according to the release. The investigation also revealed that Vining purchased cocaine from Lopez three days before his death.
“We are suffering a heartbreaking loss in our community due to fentanyl overdoses. We must continue to work to educate our youth, in particular, about the dangers of street-level drugs,” State Attorney John McCarthy said in the statement. DEA “tells us that seven out of every 10 pills seized contained a lethal dose of fentanyl.”
According to Maryland Department of Health data, drug overdose deaths have decreased in the county, but fentanyl remains the leading cause of overdoses.
From January to September 2024, there were 57 overdose deaths in the county, according to data local health officials provided to the county board in October. Thirty-five of those deaths were related to fentanyl. All of the overdose deaths were men and none involved anyone under 25.
Although the year is not over yet, the data shows a decline from 2023, which saw 130 overdose deaths. There were also fewer calls to emergency medical services (EMS) for overdoses and the administration of naloxone, an overdose reversal medication.
In 2023, 73% of all overdose deaths in the county were related to fentanyl, according to state data. While this represents a slight decrease from 2021, where fentanyl was responsible for 79% of overdose deaths, it still shows an upward trend. For comparison, in 2015, only 24% of overdose deaths were related to fentanyl.
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