Drugs, gangs, and guns. Why more local cases are being diverted for prosecution
Certain crimes investigated by police around Southern California are more frequently being prosecuted at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, officials tell the NBC4 I-Team
By Eric Leonard • Published October 10, 2024 • Updated on October 11, 2024 at 3:22 pm
Editor’s note: this article has been updated to reflect additional responses and information provided to NBC4 after publication by the LA County District Attorney’s Office
A variety of local law enforcement officials say arrests and investigations traditionally prosecuted by the LA County District Attorney’s Office, including certain drug, gang, and gun cases, are being re-routed more frequently by police to federal prosecutors in efforts to obtain harsher penalties.
Some of the most visible examples, the officials said, have been in fentanyl death investigations, where, until recently, DA George Gascón had said he did not support filing murder charges against drug suppliers responsible for overdose deaths, and said through a spokesman in 2021 that increased penalties for drug offenses do not save lives.
Now, members of a local task force who specialize in drug supplier death investigations are often going directly to federal authorities.
“They no longer had confidence after meeting with upper management, and they have not brought any more cases to the District Attorney’s office,” said Brian Schirn, a 30-year veteran prosecutor and the Head Deputy of the narcotics unit at the DA’s office, speaking to the I-Team as a private citizen, not as a representative for the office.
Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed Schirn’s account, and said there were more than 2 dozen locally-investigated fentanyl cases moving through the federal court system as of September.
Schirn said the October, 2022 accidental fentanyl overdose death of an 18-year-old in Santa Clarita named Jax Markley was a turning point, after one of Gascón’s executives overruled the recommendations of prosecutors to file a second-degree murder charge against the supplier who sold Markley counterfeit pills containing fentanyl.
According to an internal DA’s office memo, Chief Deputy District Attorney Sharon Woo directed the case be filed as an involuntary manslaughter instead, which generally carries a maximum penalty of up to four years in prison.
“We all thought it was an incredibly strong case,” said Schirn, who said he agreed that the case should have been filed as a second degree murder.
Detectives then presented the same information to the US Attorney’s Office, where the drug supplier, Skylar Mitchell, was indicted on a federal charge of distributing fentanyl resulting in death.
“They plead guilty right away, because it was such a strong and compelling case,” Shirn said of the evidence against Mitchell, who is scheduled to be sentenced in December and faces no less than 10 years in prison, according to federal prosecutors.
Tiffiny Blacknell, Gascón’s Chief of Staff, said Thursday characterized Schirn’s statements as gossip, and also said Schirn openly supported Gascón’s challenger in November’s election.
She said that the federal charge filed in the Markley case, distributing fentanyl resulting in death, is not available in state court, that the decision not to file a murder charge was discretionary and based on the evidence in the case, and that it was a member of the DA’s office senior management who suggested detectives present the case to federal prosecutors.
She added that she was unaware of any other fentanyl related death investigations that were taken to the federal government originating from Los Angeles County, other than 2, “isolated,” incidents over 4 years, and said, “this is not a pattern.”
Mitchell’s defense attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Gascón said in an email earlier this week, “Knowingly selling illegal fentanyl can amount to an act of callous disregard for human life. That’s why our office treats illegal fentanyl sales with the utmost seriousness. We are committed to prosecuting those who illegally distribute fentanyl and other dangerous substances.”
Gascón’s approach shifted recently.
After dismissing drug supplier murder prosecutions as an ineffective strategy in 2021, Gascón’s office filed 3 such cases in 2024, including against Jestice James, a mother accused of child abuse and murder for the deaths of her twins, who authorities said were exposed to fentanyl.
Blacknell said there was no recent policy change in the office that allowed the more recent fentanyl overdose murder prosecutions against the alleged drug suppliers, and said the decision and circumstances of the Markley case were an isolated incident.
“We’re here to talk about how the LA County District Attorney’s Office failed us,” said Matt Markley, Jax’s father, when he sat down with the I-Team to discuss the DA’s charging decisions.
He said he was angry when he learned of the DA’s decision to file a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, and personally appealed to DA Gascón to reconsider.
“I was a little flabbergasted because we hold drunk drivers responsible, why are we not holding this addict accountable for killing other people,” said Markley, who said he voted for Gascón in 2020 and supported some of his justice reform policies.
Markley said he was further frustrated when he learned the DA’s office had filed fentanyl-supplier murder cases in recent months, and questioned why the approach had shifted.
“Why the change? Just before an election cycle, I wonder? And that’s why I’m angry enough to sit here in front of you and share this,” Markley said.
Other local law enforcement officials said the recent federal prosecutions of the alleged gang members responsible for the murder of LAPD Officer Fernando Arroyos, which was also initially discussed with the DA’s office, and a new effort to prosecute local firearms arrests in federal court are also instructive.
“What we’re doing here is expanding the number of cases that we bring federally,” US Attorney Martin Estrada said at a news conference in March announcing a gun crime enforcement partnership with the LAPD and the LA County and Ventura County Sheriff’s Departments, in which officers, deputies, and detectives would receive training on how to recognize cases that could be brought under federal, rather than local, statutes, and how to present them to federal prosecutors.
Estrada said the firearms program was being done in concert with local prosecutors, although Gascón did not appear at the event.
As to the Arroyo murder case Blacknell said the defendants could have received lengthier prison terms of up to 50-years-to-life had they been tried and convicted of murder in state court, and said they received less time when they were sentenced on federal RICO charges as members of a street gang.
A spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office said it was difficult to assess how many local cases have been presented for federal consideration as the office does not keep statistics that capture that information.
Recent news releases have highlighted federal prosecutions of watch and store robberies and carjackings, cases investigated by local police.
Schirn, the narcotics prosecutor, said the cases being shifted to US District Court, where only certain categories of locally-investigated crimes can be prosecuted under federal law, appears to be a response to some of Gascón’s policies that restricted the use of gang, gun, and narcotics sentencing enhancements, which have had the effect of reducing penalties for a variety of serious crimes.
Blacknell said there was not a complete prohibition on enhancements, and that the office has filed some 11,000 gun enhancements under Gascón’s initiatives.
“The reason I agreed to come on camera, despite the fact that I’m very nervous, is because for 30 years I’ve asked victims and witnesses to come to court and have the courage to be honest and truthful,” Schirn said.
“And who am I as a prosecutor when I know awful things are happening that I don’t have the courage to do this?”
