A San Diego-area drug dealer was sentenced Wednesday to 14 1/2 years in federal prison for selling fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of a 26-year-old woman.
Uriah Odish apologized to Tiffany Hansens's mother for the suffering he had caused before the judge handed down the sentence.
Hansen's mother, Keri Cuppage, described in court the pain and anguish she had been through since her daughter died Jan. 23, 2018 at her home in La Mesa, a town east of San Diego.
According to his plea agreement, Odish sold more than 500 grams of what he knew to be fentanyl between 2017 and the day of the fatal overdose. He sold the drugs to Hansen's husband who then gave the drug to her, according to court documents.
Prosecutor Mark Conover said the sentence was appropriate. Federal officials are going after dealers for overdose deaths, especially those caused by such a dangerous drug like fentanyl.
“The reason we are trying to have sentences be significant is we want to send a message to drug dealers on the streets that if you are going to sell fentanyl, which you know is deadly, and somebody dies, you could go to jail for decades," he said.
