Woman agrees to confess in fentanyl death case

A woman accused of selling the fatal overdose that killed a Valencia High School graduate nearly two years ago is expected to agree to a plea deal next week, federal officials said.

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, the defendant, 25-year-old Skylar Lynn Mitchell of Saugus, agrees not to seek a prison sentence of less than 10 years, according to an email Monday from Ciaran McEvoy, press secretary for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“However, the prosecution has not yet requested a specific sentence from the court,” he added, noting that technically she has not yet pleaded guilty, but has merely agreed to plead guilty. “Assuming Mitchell pleads guilty, we expect to file our sentencing memorandum in the coming months, which will include our specific request for a prison sentence.”

Mitchell’s case was one of the first investigations by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Opioid Overdose Response Task Force, which was created so that such investigations could lead to federal charges that would carry harsher penalties for the crimes.

According to federal court documents, Mitchell sold Jax Markley a fatal dose of fentanyl on November 6, 2022, months after Markley graduated from high school.

Based on the LASD Task Force’s investigation, which was subsequently turned over to federal investigators at the Department of Justice, Mitchell was charged with one count of Federal Statute 21:841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), namely Distribution of Fentanyl Resulting in Death.

The tragedy spurred Jax Markley’s father, Matt Markley, to become more involved, even publicly rebuking District Attorney George Gascón during a campaign appearance for refusing to charge the crimes related to his child’s death as murder.

Representatives from both Gascón’s office and his campaign team declined to comment on the exchange or to answer questions about his office’s apparent change of course: On Thursday, Gascón announced that he would charge a Granada Hills man with murder for knowingly selling fentanyl and methamphetamine to a woman who died of an overdose.

Matt Markley said he learned an incredible amount through the process and also became an advocate and supporter of those facing the same tragedy as him.

He recently appeared in court to support a parent who had lost an even younger child in the same circumstances and said the defendant had been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

“Given what I know about the details of the mitigating circumstances, my expectation was that I would have to look at the case from the perspective of legal experience,” he said, which was very difficult for him as a father.

Those circumstances included Mitchell telling investigators that family members introduced her to marijuana when she was 12, that she was in foster care when she was 14, and that she started taking fentanyl during the pandemic, according to court documents obtained by The Signal.

“I made it clear to the prosecutor that I would not even consider accepting less than 10 years because the first number they mentioned was eight years,” he said. “I said, ‘No, I’m not interested in that,’ and if that were to happen, I would go through the process just as quickly.”

Under federal law, the maximum sentence for Mitchell’s crime is 20 years.

While Judge Stephen V. Wilson may consider input from victims’ families and recommendations from prosecutors, sentencing for fentanyl-related deaths is a relatively new crime.

Dominick Alvarado, 22, pleaded guilty in November to two counts related to fentanyl deaths as part of a plea agreement. He faces up to 40 years in prison. Alvarado agreed to a plea agreement and was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison in May.