A 24-year-old man was taken into custody today after being sentenced to 48 months probation and 120 days behind bars for providing a fatal dose of fentanyl to his 17-year-old girlfriend near Desert Hot Springs.

Michael Garcia was indicted Sept. 10 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio on charges of intentional cruelty to children and adult delivery of a controlled substance to a minor, according to case records.

Judge Melissa Hale sentenced the defendant Thursday to 48 months probation and 120 days probation, according to case records and Thalia Hayden of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

Garcia was arrested in the El Centro area around 7:45 pm on August 26 and returned to Indio; where he was booked into the John Benoit Detention Center on suspicion of unlawfully providing a controlled substance to endanger minors, a felony. inmate records and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

He was being held on $75,000 bail.

At approximately 9 a.m. on Aug. 21, 2022, deputies from the Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station responded to a report of an unresponsive teenage girl in her bedroom, according to Sgt. Sean Liebrand of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

“Life-saving measures were unsuccessful and the teenager was ultimately pronounced dead,” Liebrand said in a statement. he said. “The investigation determined that the teenage girl had overdosed on fentanyl.”

The department’s Overdose Investigations and Narcotics Unit took over the investigation and identified Garcia as the suspect, according to Liebrand.

Garcia was present when deputies responded to the home and told investigator James Peters that the night before he “purchased and provided M-30 pills, which he stated he knew contained fentanyl,” according to a court statement supporting his arrest. (to the girl) who drinks them.”

“Michael said he woke up the next morning to find that he had overdosed,” Peters wrote in his affidavit.

Garcia admitted that he knew the girl was 17 but continued a sexual relationship with her for several months, according to Peters. Peters said he continued taking fentanyl until his fatal overdose, even though he knew he had recently left rehab for fentanyl addiction.

At the time, Liebrand said more suspects and arrests were expected in the case. It is not yet known whether other arrests have been made in the case.