Palm Desert man sentenced for supplying deadly fentanyl dose to 30-year-old man
Jesus Reyes
INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) – A Palm Desert man was sentenced to prison for supplying a lethal dose of fentanyl to a 30-year-old man in 2022.
Gregory Michael Gauto, 39, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter Thursday and immediately sentenced to six years,
The case dates back to Sept. 26, 2022, when deputies responded to a report of a dead man at the 46900 block of state Route 74. The man, identified in court documents as Brandon Brower, was found dead from a suspected fentanyl poisoning.
After conducting the initial investigation, deputies turned the probe over to the Special Investigations Bureau Overdose Death Investigations and Narcotics Team, according to Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Master Investigator Robert Cornett.
After conducting the initial investigation, deputies turned the probe over to the Special Investigations Bureau Overdose Death Investigations and Narcotics Team, according to Cornett.
According to a declaration in support of Gauto’s arrest warrant filed by Cornett, investigators examined a cell phone and found messages from Brower asking an unidentified woman for fentanyl pills. When she says she’s stuck in Palm Springs, Brower allegedly starts to call Gauto.
“There were messages consistent with Gregory driving to Brandon’s house to trade fentanyl for Klonopins,” Cornett alleged in the warrant. “The messages show that Gregory arrived at Brandon’s house and he delivered the fentanyl to Brandon. Gregory even tells Brandon to ‘Be careful.'”
Brower had deleted all of the messages from his phone, but some were recovered by the department’s software, according to Cornett. Gauto was also allegedly found to be at Brower’s apartment at 4:16 a.m. Sept. 26, 2022, based on location services.
During an interview with Gauto, he allegedly mentioned that he was at Brower’s apartment that morning and got Klonopins from him, Cornett said. He also mentioned that one of his friends died from fentanyl, which was confirmed by the Coroner’s Bureau.
Cornett said he additionally found records of previous messages in which Gauto allegedly said that two or three of his friends died from fentanyl in the past years, prior to when Brower was provided the deadly dose.
Gauto was arrested June 7, 2023 near the intersection of Plaza Way and Highway 111 in Palm Desert, according to inmate records. He was booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, where he remains held on $1 million bail.