Woman pleads guilty to distributing deadly fentanyl dose at Santa Rita Jail
Lee Esther Anderson. Courtesy: Family
DUBLIN, Calif. - A woman from San Leandro pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court to distributing a deadly dose of fentanyl to another incarcerated woman in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, the Department of Justice announced.
Kameron Patricia Reid, 38, admitted to distributing fentanyl to other inmates; she had hidden the narcotic inside her genitals, which was captured on surveillance video.
On May 16, 2021, she gave two women fentanyl and watched them snort it.
Shortly thereafter, they both appeared intoxicated and Victim 1 lapsed into unconsciousness and became motionless near her bunk, the DOJ said.
The DOJ did not name the person who died, but she was Lee Esther Anderson, according to family and an FBI affadavit.
In order to avoid getting in trouble, Reid admitted that she did not notify anyone in the jail that Anderson appeared to have overdosed. Instead, she flushed any remaining fentanyl down the toilet, she said in her plea agreement.
Eventually another woman called for assistance after several hours.
Surveillance video inside Santa Rita Jail shows Kameron Patricia Reid taking fentanyl out of her genital area in the bathroom. May 16, 2021
Paramedics arrived but Anderson was pronounced dead.
Investigators said that Reid lied to them about her involvement in Anderson's death.
In her plea agreement, Reid admitted that the fentanyl that she gave Anderson had killed her.
Reid pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing fentanyl and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a life term of supervised release and a fine of $1 million.
She has not been charged with Anderson's death, however.
Reid is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Oakland on Oct. 28.
When she was young, Anderson was a star basketball player at Skyline High School.
In a video her friend made about her in 1994, Anderson said she hoped to go to college and be an actress or a professional basketball player one day. Anderson later went on to attend San Diego State University, have a daughter and a hold down a songwriting and music production career.
As to how Reid was able to sneak the drugs inside the Dublin facility?
In an an earlier interview with KTVU, Lt. Ray Kelly acknowledged that most of the drugs that get into jail are smuggled in body cavities despite having two new drug detection Labrador retrievers and K-9 handlers.
"Every day, we search to make sure the jail is drug free," Kelly said. "It seems to be more challenging these days as there are a tremendous amount of dangerous drugs in our communities and people willing to smuggle them into our jail."
Katy St. Clair of Bay City News contributed to this report.