RIVERSIDE — A convicted drug dealer who supplied a deadly dose of fentanyl to a 30-year-old Temecula man was convicted Wednesday of murder.
After deliberating less than a day, a Riverside jury on Wednesday found Quinn Aaron McKellips, 39, of Winchester guilty in the death of Calin Sender in 2020.
After more than a week of testimony, the prosecution and defense delivered closing arguments at the Riverside Hall of Justice Tuesday, after which Riverside County Superior Court Judge Steven Counelis sent jurors behind closed doors to begin weighing evidence. Deliberations lasted only a couple of hours Wednesday morning before a verdict was reached.
Counelis did not immediately schedule a sentencing hearing. McKellips is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by sheriff’s Investigator Robert Cornett, Sender and McKellips were longtime acquaintances, and the latter sold different types of narcotics to the victim for months.
In the predawn hours of Jan. 17, 2020, deputies and paramedics were called to Sender’s residence in the 44000 block of Festivo Street after the owner of the property, who had been renting him a room, discovered him dead on the floor, adjacent to a chest of drawers.
Cornett said deputies discovered two halves of fentanyl-laced M-30 pills, as well as two other whole pills and a dozen Xanax “bars,” in the room. An autopsy determined the cause of death was “acute fentanyl intoxication.”
Detectives searched the victim’s mobile phone and uncovered a string of text messages between Sender and McKellips, including a communication in which the victim requested “supers” from the defendant. The reference meant Sender wanted a stronger M-30 pill, loaded with fentanyl, the affidavit said.
The investigation spanned over two years before the sheriff’s Overdose Investigations & Narcotics Unit compiled sufficient evidence to identify McKellips as the supplier of the fentanyl.
During an interview with detectives, the convicted felon was asked about “supers,” and he insisted they were Suboxone, which is used to treat narcotic addiction, according to the affidavit. He further stated he himself had been a fentanyl user since 2018 and “whenever he would sell a pill to someone, he would tell them to ‘quarter’ it and only take that piece.”
“He said he had lost four (acquaintances) to fentanyl,” the affidavit said.
McKellips was arrested without incident in September 2023.
Court records show he has prior convictions for possession of controlled substances for sale, being a narcotic addict in possession of a gun, transportation of controlled substances for sale and domestic violence.
Since February 2021, county prosecutors have charged almost 40 people in connection with fentanyl poisonings.
In November 2023, the D.A.’s office closed the books on the county’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34-year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman.
Public health statistics indicated there were 349 known fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2024, compared to 579 in 2023, a 40% decline.
Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the synthetic opioid is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.
Fentanyl is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.
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