Fentanyl dealer sentenced to 18 years in North Park overdose deaths

A San Diego man who distributed the fentanyl that led to the deaths of two people at a North Park home was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.

Scott Anthony Sargent, 64, pleaded guilty in January to a fentanyl distribution charge for providing the drugs that killed a 40- year-old woman and 35-year-old man on Nov. 10, 2022.

First responders found the victims inside a bedroom and pronounced them dead at the scene. Sargent and another person were found unresponsive, but they recovered after being treated with Narcan.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the drugs Sargent distributed were a mix of fentanyl and para-fluorofentanyl, a fentanyl analogue. The same mixture was found in Sargent’s backpack and duffel bag at the residence.

Authorities found more drugs – 3.2 kilograms of methamphetamine, 5.44 grams of cocaine, and 113.4 grams of fentanyl/para-fluorofentanyl – inside his storage unit.

Prosecutors argued in their papers that Sargent was selling fentanyl during the time when the deaths occurred, as well as after the fatal overdoses.

Sargent’s defense attorney, James Chavez, argued in a sentencing brief that Sargent and the other people at the home believed they were using cocaine, not fentanyl.

“While Mr. Sargent bears criminal responsibility for dealing these dangerous substances, the deaths resulted from a tragic mistake about what substance the group was consuming, not from an intentional fentanyl poisoning,” the attorney wrote.