One man tied to 7 overdoses — one fatal — in McMinnville, feds say

Published 3:04 pm Tuesday, February 28, 2023

A 28-year-old man is accused of selling the fentanyl that resulted in the overdoses earlier this month of seven people in McMinnville, including one woman who died.

John Kyle Donnahoo was arrested on a warrant Monday afternoon at a Salem home and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center. On Tuesday, he was ordered held in custody pending trial.

He’s accused of distributing fentanyl resulting in death and serious injury, a charge carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.

Two of the victims told investigators that Donnahoo sold the drug that caused the overdoses, according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Jeffrey Thomas.

On Feb. 9, Donnahoo arranged to sell a friend $100 worth of cocaine via Facebook Messenger, Thomas wrote in an affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint against Donnahoo.

Early the next day, Donnahoo came to a home in the 2020 block of Northwest Cedar Street in McMinnville and sold his customer what he represented to be cocaine for $100. The sale was made in the garage of the home, according to the affidavit.

Donnahoo brought two other men with him who ended up using the drugs with others already at the home, according to the affidavit.

Donnahoo warned them that the cocaine he sold may contain fentanyl, according to investigators.

One person in the home tested the substance twice with some type of “test kit,” according to the affidavit. There apparently was a problem with the first test but a second test came back negative for fentanyl, which turned out to be a false test, the affidavit said.

Two men who arrived with Donahoo and five others in the home consumed the fentanyl and overdosed.

Three people in the groupstarted snorting lines of the drug from a mirror in the garage, according to the affidavit. Soon, two of them started turning blue, one of the victims later told investigators. Another started feeling dizzy and felt like her body temperature was going up, according to the affidavit.

One of the victims said the group “had snorted cocaine before and immediately knew that something was different” about this substance, Thomas wrote in the affidavit.

Donnahoo drove three of the victims directly to a hospital and dropped them at the emergency room, where they were treated and released.

At 1:05 a.m, the Yamhill County emergency dispatch received a report of multiple overdoses at the house on Cedar Street.

McMinnville police responded first and gave the drug Narcan to four victims at the home. Police then called for Yamhill County sheriff’s deputies to respond, who gave more doses of the overdose-countering drug.

The four at the home were taken by ambulance to Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville. Two of the victims were unconscious upon arrival. One of the four died at the hospital, according to the affidavit.

On Feb. 13, a Yamhill County sheriff’s captain tested the drug residue left on the mirror in the garage and it came backpositive for fentanyl, not cocaine, the affidavit said.

Greater risk of overdoseFentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, cheaper and easier to manufacture and more addictive. It carries a greater risk of overdose, especially for young people with no experience using opioids.

According to the Oregon Health Authority, unintentional fentanyl overdose deaths increased from 71 in 2019 to 509 in 2021. Deaths involving fentanyl made up almost half of all overdose deaths in 2021 in Oregon, compared to about 14% in 2019 and 32% in 2020, the state health authority found.

“All of the surviving victims faced a substantial risk of death,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin wrote in a motion requesting that Donnahoo be held in jail pending trial.“If the defendant had walked into that house and shot seven people, killing one of them, no one would contemplate his potential release from custody.”

“The same conclusion should be reached here,” Kerin wrote. “The defendant profited from selling death and destruction — in exchange for $100, the defendant took one life and almost stole six more lives. The defendant has the ability to kill every person he sells fentanyl to — anyone the defendant sells fentanyl to can overdose and die.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Bolstad, appearing in court Tuesday afternoon, also argued for Donnahoo’s continued detention pending trial. She said the victims were in their 20s and 30s.

“I’ve never seen such a scenario,” Bolstad said, of one man allegedly linked to seven overdoses. “It’s incredibly sad and an incredibly dangerous scenario. … This is a defendant who knowingly is distributing something that every person in America is now well familiar with — you’re selling death.”

Assistant Federal Public Defender Fidel Cassino-DeCloux countered that Donnahoo should be released from custody with conditions, including an assessment for his own drug use. He’s not a large-scale or even mid-level drug dealer, has lived with his mother, has custody of his two children and has had his own construction business, his lawyer said.

He also is friends with those who overdosed, Cassino-DeCloux said.

“Mr. Donnahoo was partying with what everyone in the room thought was cocaine,” his lawyer said.

Donnahoo also consumed some of the substance, took a couple of the victims to the hospital and called 911 to get immediate help for others. He got sick himself and also received some medical care, Cassino-DuCloux told the court.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman said she appreciated that he took actions to get his friends immediate help.

But Beckerman said she was concerned that Donnahoo acknowledged that he was aware the drug he sold could contain fentanyl “and nevertheless, he distributed it.”

Cassino-DeCloux asked if Donnahoo could be held at a halfway house instead of jail. Bolstad opposed that idea, arguing that he’d be around people who suffer from their own drug addictions.

The judge ordered Donnahoo to remain in custody pending trial.