A 23-year-old Placer County man will soon begin serving a decades-long prison sentence after he was convicted of murder for providing the fentanyl that killed a soon-to-be father struggling with addiction.
Carson Schewe was sentenced to 20 years to life Thursday after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder for his role in the 2021 death of Kade Webb, who prosecutors said ingested a pill he purchased from Schewe that contained a fatal dose of fentanyl.
This case is among the first in California to successfully convict drug dealers of murder for providing a deadly dose of fentanyl, a legal practice that has increasingly gained prominence across the state as overdoses from the synthetic opioid have skyrocketed in recent years.
Placer County has led the way with such cases in California, securing the first fentanyl-related homicide conviction last year, when a 22-year-old pleaded guilty to murder after selling drugs to a teenager that resulted in the teen’s death.
According to the Placer County district attorney, the case against Schewe is California’s second fentanyl-related murder conviction by jury trial.
“I hope and pray for the day when we no longer have to share these tragic stories of fentanyl devastating our communities,” Placer County Dist. Atty. Morgan Gire said in a statement. “Until then, we will continue to educate our community members and aggressively hold those who sell poison to our residents accountable. … For anyone thinking of selling fentanyl in our county, I have one message for you: we will find you and we will hold you accountable.”
But this approach has also drawn intense criticism, with questions about its effectiveness, as increased penalties have not been proven to reduce drug use. Others worry it has a chilling effect on people calling for help during an overdose.
Rohan Beesla, Schewe’s attorney with the Placer County Public Defender’s Office, is among those who worry about the personal and policy implications of such murder convictions, especially when they often pit two drug users against each other, sometimes people who used together or were friends.
He said Schewe plans to appeal the case.
“We believe that there are multiple grounds for a potential appeal that are specific to his case but also go to the question, generally, of whether this type of conduct in general — drug sales — can form the basis of a murder conviction,” Beesla said.
But pinning murder charges on dealers has been a method lauded by law enforcement groups and families of the overdose victims — including Webb’s.
“I call on our region, state and nation to follow suit to what we have built here in Placer County,” Kurt Webb, Kade’s dad, said in a statement after the sentencing. “Our county’s aggressive approach to those who sell this poison sends a message that cannot be ignored: stay away from our kids. I will honor Kade’s memory by continuing this fight and ensure our policy makers hold these death dealers accountable.”
This case gained additional attention because Kade Webb was a cousin of Logan Webb, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
The heartbreaking story of Kade Webb’s addiction and overdose was featured last year on ESPN’s Outside the Lines program, depicting the two cousins growing up close in Northern California, and remaining that way even as Logan Webb’s baseball career took off.
Logan Webb said he knew his cousin was struggling, and made a point to remain supportive. It seemed like Kade Webb was making positive strides: He had recently finished inpatient rehab and was expecting his first daughter with his girlfriend, the documentary said. But then, he was found dead in a Safeway bathroom after overdosing on fentanyl.
“There is nothing that prepares you for a loss of someone who is like your brother,” Logan Webb said in a statement. “I am humbled to have a platform to share Kade’s story at a national level to help reach our youth on this crisis. Our kids are struggling, and we need to let them know that it is OK to struggle, but also the dangers that self-medicating can bring.”
Prosecutors asserted that Schewe “was aware that his conduct was dangerous to human life and that he acted in reckless disregard for life by selling fentanyl.”
Beesla, however, said his client did not mislead buyers or friends about the pills he sold. Schewe was also nowhere close to the large-scale drug dealer prosecutors made him out to be, Beesla said.
“He was selling street-level amounts to support his own addiction,” he said.
