Fresno County man gets 4 years for fatal pill sale

A Fresno County judge sentenced Antwane Dupree Lee to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in a case tied to a deadly fentanyl pill sale. The sentence closed a prosecution that began as a second-degree murder case, one that could have put Lee behind bars for 15 years to life.

Prosecutors said Lee sold a pill containing fentanyl to Vernisha Latriece Green, 34, in April 2023. Green was found dead on April 17, 2023, and the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office filed murder charges against Lee on May 7, 2024, treating the case as a fentanyl poisoning death rather than a routine narcotics arrest.

The plea to voluntary manslaughter narrowed the case sharply. In practical terms, Lee admitted criminal responsibility for the fatal outcome and avoided a trial on the original murder count, cutting his exposure from a possible life sentence to a four-year term. Defense attorney Greg Gross said Lee did not want to gamble on a trial. Prosecutor Kendall Reynolds said the office weighed the evidence and accepted the agreement only after deciding it still held Lee accountable.

The outcome matters in Fresno County because it is only the second time prosecutors have said a suspected drug dealer was held criminally responsible for a fatal overdose. The county’s earlier milestone case involved Cassidy Marie Gonzalez, whom prosecutors described as Fresno County’s first-ever jury conviction in a fentanyl murder trial.

Gonzalez was convicted by a jury on March 26, 2025, in the death of Jade Dreith, 41, who died from a fentanyl overdose in January 2022. She was sentenced on January 30, 2026, to 15 years to life in state prison for second-degree murder. One report said her conviction was the third fentanyl-murder conviction in California, underscoring how uncommon these cases remain even as local prosecutors push them forward.

The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office has said it has pursued fentanyl enforcement and awareness efforts since 2021, reflecting a broader strategy to treat overdose deaths as homicide cases when the evidence supports that charge. A county report cited 26 fentanyl-related deaths in Fresno County as of May 7, 2024, and 94 fentanyl-related deaths in the prior year.

Later coverage reported Fresno County fentanyl overdose deaths fell to 66 in 2025, down 42% from an all-time high of 114 in 2021. For families who have lost loved ones, the new sentence may feel limited. For prosecutors, it still marks another step in building a local precedent that fentanyl pill sales can carry serious prison time when they end in death.