Santa Barbara County Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for Distributing Fentanyl that Resulted in Death of Fellow Jail Inmate

LOS ANGELES – A Lompoc man was sentenced today to 240 months in federal prison for aiding and abetting the distribution of fentanyl that resulted in the death of a fellow inmate at a Santa Barbara County jail and the serious bodily injury of another inmate.

Kaelen Jacobkeali Wendel, 32, was sentenced by United States District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong.

At the conclusion of a five-day trial, a jury on March 1 found Wendel guilty of one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death and serious bodily injury.

In October 2022, Wendel smuggled fentanyl into a unit of the Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail. He packaged the powerful synthetic opioid in candy containers.

As the new inmate, Wendel handed some fentanyl to his co-defendant, Michael Villapania, 36, of Lompoc, in the expectation that he would receive jail commissary goods in exchange. Villapania then sold the drug to a victim identified in court documents as “J.V.” J.V. then shared the fentanyl with another victim, who is identified in court documents as “E.E.”

After ingesting the drug during the early morning hours of October 20, 2022, E.E. and J.V. overdosed. After an inmate alerted a custody deputy about the overdose, deputies and nurses administered multiple doses of Narcan – a life-saving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses – and performed CPR on both inmates. They revived J.V., but E.E. died.

Villapania pleaded guilty on February 1 to one count of distribution of fentanyl. He was sentenced on June 10 to seven years in federal prison.

“[Wendel] committed a serious offense that ended in a tragedy,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “He smuggled fentanyl into a jail unit, killing E.E. and nearly killing J.V. He created a market for fentanyl where there was none.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Suria M. Bahadue, Alexandra Kelly, and Kenneth R. Carbajal of the General Crimes Section prosecuted this case.