Man Faces 20 Years in Prison in Fentanyl Death of South Bay Teen

LOS ANGELES—A Rolling Hills man is facing 20 years to life in federal prison following his conviction for providing fentanyl-laced pills to a 15-year-old boy who ate them and died in May 2020, federal prosecutors said May 22.

Alexander Declan Bell Wilson, 22, was convicted late Friday after a five-day trial of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

According to prosecutors, Wilson sold five “percs”—or fentanyl-laced pills—to 15-year-old Nathan Young-Nichols of Rolling Hills Estates on May 14, 2020. Prosecutors said the teen believed the pills he bought were “authentic pharmaceutical pills that contained the opioid oxycodone.”

The teen posted a photo of the pills on his Snapchat social media account just before ingesting them late that night, prosecutors said. In the early morning hours of May 15, Wilson and the victim argued on Snapchat about the proper way to ingest the pills, with Wilson telling the teen not to chew the pills. Wilson shared screenshots of the conversation with his Snapchat followers, prosecutors said.

The teen was found dead in his bedroom the next morning by his grandmother. Investigators determined his death was due solely to fentanyl poisoning.