ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The 18th Judicial District Grand Jury indicted a man for the murder of a 16-year-old Lakewood girl who died from mixed alcohol and fentanyl toxicity on Aug. 7 in Aurora.
District Attorney George Brauchler charged Jorge Che-Quiab, 25, with more than a dozen charges, including: two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of distribution of a controlled substance to a minor, two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, sexual assault on a child, sexual assault, enticement of a child, criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on an incapacitated victim and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
“It is incredibly concerning that unsuspecting drug users could inadvertently be consuming fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than oxycodone,” District Attorney George Brauchler said. “In this case, we have a juvenile victim who was given what she thought was ‘oxy,’ and she is dead from a fentanyl overdose. This is a warning to illegal drug users: The risk cannot be overstated, and it is death.”
According to interviews with Che-Quiab's detailed in his indictment, Che-Quiab admitted to picking up multiple underage teenage girls and bringing them to his apartment on S. Quentin Way in Aurora just after 1 a.m. Aug. 7. He provided alcohol, marijuana and what he initially claimed was cocaine. Che-Quiab said the girls brought blue pills.
Testing on the substances obtained from his apartment in a search warrant included just over 600 grams of heroin and approximately 300 blue pills containing fentanyl, though Che-Quiab also admitted to flushing some of the drugs in the apartment down the toilet.
In a second interview, Che-Quiab admitted he provided the blue pills and knew they contained fentanyl.
Che-Quiab said he knew the 16-year-old who died was not doing well because she was having difficulty maintaining consciousness and couldn't walk, but he went to bed anyway.
When he woke up later that morning around 9:30 a.m., another unidentified man said she wasn't breathing. They tried to perform CPR and called 911, but the victim was later pronounced dead.
In the autopsy and toxicology report, Arapahoe County Coroner Dr. Kelly Lear found the presence of fentanyl and alcohol in the 16-year-old victim's blood and no sign of cocaine or cocaine metabolites.
Che-Quiab later admitted he performed oral sex and had sexual intercourse with one of the girls who was at the apartment, according to the indictment.
Investigators interviewed at least two of the girls who were at the apartment. One of the girls said they'd been told the blue pills were "oxys" and that she felt, "they were trying to rape us." The other girl interviewed, who was 14-years-old, said she blacked out and woke up with her underwear off and her pants on backwards.
Che-Quiab is being held in a $2,000,000 bond in the Arapahoe County Jail. His next court date is scheduled for Dec. 9.
