SLO County man sold fake prescription drug to teen who died. How much prison time did he get?
A Paso Robles drug dealer who sold a fake prescription drug containing fentanyl to an Atascadero teenager, killing him, could spend more than a decade in federal prison.
Timothy Clarke Wolfe, 25, pleaded guilty May 30 to one count of distributing fentanyl, according to a Monday news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office representing the Central District of California.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter sentenced Wolfe to 14 years in prison, the release said.
The judge also ordered Wolfe pay $25,995 in restitution to the family of Wolfe’s victim, Emilio Velci, the release said.
Velci bought what he thought were prescription painkillers for a toothache from Wolfe in March 2020.
The 19-year-old died from fentanyl poisoning on March 8, 2020.
Although Wolfe told Velci the pills were prescription painkillers, the drug dealer “later admitted to investigators that he was ‘pretty sure’ that the pills that he sold contained fentanyl and that he knew about someone else who had ‘overdosed and died’ after taking” pills from Wolfe’s supplier, federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.
“This is not a case in which a customer requested fentanyl, received what he asked for, and then died knowingly ingesting his drug of choice. Nor is this a case in which defendant made a onetime mistake with his product,”the prosecutors wrote. “To the contrary, (Wolfe) was a repeat drug dealer who operated his illicit business in a reckless, careless, and callous manner, selling pills that he believed were fake and suspected to contain fentanyl.”
=Wolfe’s defense attorney, Georgina Wakefield, declined to comment Monday on the sentencing.
Wolfe, who was free on a $150,000 bond as of Monday, must surrender to the Federal Bureau of Prisons no later than Oct. 2.
Mother of teen: ‘We’re serving a life sentence’
Cammie Velci, Emilio Velci’s mother, told The Tribune on Monday that her family is feeling relived that the sentencing is over.
However, she said, they were “wishing and hoping” Wolfe would have received a longer sentence for his role in her youngest son’s death.
“We would have liked to have seen him go away for life, for his life,” Cammie Velci said. “We’re serving a life sentence. I am living with the horrific pain of not having my son here, and there is no amount of time in jail would ever satisfy me, unfortunately.”
She’s channeled that pain into advocacy, speaking at national and local events about the dangers of fentanyl poisoning.
Velci also started the Emilio Velci Share Aloha Project in her son’s memory. The foundation hosted its third annual dinner in May.
“That has been part of my healing process, — taking this tragedy and taking my pain and creating purpose and bringing awareness of this dangerous epidemic plaguing our country,” she said.
This story was originally published September 11, 2023 at 12:05 PM.
