TV paused on 'Euphoria': Jury hears about final moments before fentanyl overdose

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The final moments of a fentanyl overdose are now coming to light as Cassidy Gonzalez stands trial for murder.

"I had found strange drugs and a weird note, and my sister was dead," Sage Dreith said.

She took jurors back to January 17, 2022, when investigators found her sister, Jade, on the floor two days after prosecutors said Gonzalez sold her fentanyl.

Sage described the scene.

"And did you also find pills on the dresser?" defense attorney Greg Gross asked.

"Yes," Sage said.

"And did you also find pills behind the dresser?" Gross asked.

"Yes," Sage responded.

"And you also found pills in the cabinet in the kitchen?" asked Gross.

"Yes," answered Sage.

Jade's apartment appeared frozen when Sage entered.

There was food on the dresser, and the TV was paused on "Euphoria," a drama featuring a troubled teenage drug addict.

The defense tried to connect the dots, but the prosecutor objected.

The judge agreed and told the defense to move on.

The courtroom became tense.

"I don't know what you're asking me," Sage told the defense attorney.

"I feel like you're trying to trick me on purpose, and I don't know what you're asking me."

Sage is a key witness as prosecutors ask a jury to convict Gonzalez of murder.

Their case is pushing legal limits as they ask the jury to decide if selling fentanyl, a drug known to be deadly, is the same as acting with implied malice, defined as the conscious disregard for human life.

"Jade was killed by fentanyl," prosecutor Kendall Reynolds said on the first day of the trial last week.

"Jade was murdered by Ms. Gonzalez."

Gonzalez has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Her eyes were red on Monday after breaking down when police showed body camera footage from the scene.

Jurors saw Jade's body on the floor of her apartment.

"I knew she was, in fact, deceased, without moving the body," Fresno Police Department Corporal Gerald Sepeda said.

"I did not see any obvious signs of trauma at that point."

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