Investigators say a Vancouver man accused in the drug death of a female friend provided her with heroin and then video recorded the unresponsive woman rather than administering aid.
Brandon J. Sotelo, 22, appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of controlled substance homicide in the death of 23-year-old Kelsy French-Holland.
French-Holland’s body was discovered at about 3:20 p.m. Oct. 11 by her roommate, who asked not to be named. Her roommate called 911 to report that French-Holland was unresponsive and appeared to be dead, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies responded and confirmed French-Holland had died and said her death appeared to be suspicious, based, in part, on her age and because there were no signs of assault or violence, the affidavit states.
French-Holland’s mother told investigators that her daughter had a history of drug abuse and most recently abused the prescription drug Xanax, according to court records.
In August 2016, she learned that her daughter was hospitalized for a heroin overdose. Her daughter was at Sotelo’s father’s residence when that overdose occurred, she said. Sotelo called 911 when French-Holland lost consciousness during that incident, according to court documents.
Sotelo and French-Holland had reportedly known each other since middle school.
Because of the prior incident, French-Holland’s mother believed Sotelo may be involved in her daughter’s death. She accessed her daughter’s Google and Facebook accounts and learned that the two had recently been talking and referenced using heroin just before her death, the affidavit states.
Investigators later recovered a video from French-Holland’s cellphone shot by Sotelo the day before her body was discovered. In it, he’s heard saying that he tried to wake up French-Holland, but she was unresponsive. He’s also seen picking her up off the floor and placing her on her bed, court records said.
Toxicology testing completed in December found that French-Holland died of an accidental drug overdose — a mixture of Alprazolam, also known as Xanax, and morphine, the metabolite of heroin, according to court documents.
In an interview with detectives, Sotelo admitted to bringing heroin to French-Holland’s residence and said she ingested it. He said he thought she was “sleeping it off” when he found her unresponsive, the affidavit said.
He added that if he had medication to counter the overdose, he would have used it or would have administered CPR if he knew how, court documents state.
During his hearing Friday, Judge Daniel Stahnke set Sotelo’s bail at $300,000. He will be arraigned Jan. 12, court records show.
