AUSTIN, Texas — An 18-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with an 17-year-old's death after police said he sold the teen girl fentanyl.
The Austin Police Department (APD) said on the morning of April 13, officers responded to a call at a home in the 1200 block of Knollpark Circle. The caller said his daughter, later identified as Sienna Rae Contreras, was dead.
When officers arrived to the home and spoke with Contreras' father, he told them he had last seen his daughter the night before. That morning, when he went to wake her up, he found her dead in her bed. Contreras was officially pronounced dead shortly after officers arrived.
Detectives with both the Homicide and Narcotics Support units, as well as crime scene specialists, responded to process the scene and interview witnesses. According to police, the investigation revealed Xavier Alexzander Buentello had sold fentanyl to Contreras, causing her death hours later.
Police said Buentello had been in the Travis County Jail since April 29 for different charges, but as of Aug. 6, he has now been charged with first-degree murder.
Jail records show that, in addition to the murder charge, Buentello is facing charges of unlawful carrying of a weapon (Class A misdemeanor); evading arrest with a vehicle (third-degree felony); two second-degree felony charges of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance greater than or equal to 1 gram but less than four grams; and a first-degree felony charge of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance greater than or equal to 4 grams but less than 200 grams.
Bond has not yet been set for the murder charge, but Buentello already had a combined $117,000 bond for the other five charges he faces.
APD's announcement of this murder charge comes just days after Cedar Park police announced a murder charge against Caleb Comer, 25, in the fentanyl-related death of 18-year-old Matthew Wright. In both cases, the murder charges were made possible as a result of a law that went into effect last year that allows suspects to be charged with murder for manufacturing or distributing fentanyl that results in death.