SANTA ANA (CNS) - A 48-year-old security manager for a Newport Beach bar dealt fentanyl to three patrons six years ago, leading to one death and two other overdoses, a federal prosecutor told jurors today -- while the defendant's attorney said the real culprit was an unnamed "mystery man."
Sean Robert McLaughlin, 48, is charged with one count of distribution of furanyl fentanyl resulting in death and serious bodily injury, a count of distribution of cocaine, and four counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA and hydrocodone.
McLaughlin is accused of selling the lethal dose of fentanyl to 25- year-old Ahmed Said of Santa Ana on Nov. 18, 2016.
"In November of 2016, defendant Sean Robert McLaughlin worked at a bar in Newport Beach known as American Junkie," assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley Marrett told jurors in his opening statement. "He had two jobs -- head of security... and he was also the bar's resident drug dealer."
McLaughlin kept his "stash" in a locker at the bar on Newport Boulevard, Marrett said. When Newport Beach police conducted a search warrant on the bar after the overdoses, "They found a pharmacy of drugs" in the locker McLaughlin allegedly used, Marrett said.
There were "baggies of cocaine ready to be doled out to customers," the prosecutor said.
The defendant also did web searches on "how to cut cocaine," which is done to "increase the strength of drugs," Marrett said. Police also found he searched for small glass vials such as the ones "loaded with cocaine" that were found in his locker, the prosecutor said.
Investigators also recovered text messages from patrons to McLaughlin, Marrett said. In one exchange, a patron allegedly messaged the defendant, "need a bag," and McLaughlin responded, "bathroom."
The bathroom was the one place in the bar without surveillance cameras, Marrett said.
"It was the defendant's preferred location to distribute drugs to his customers," according to the prosecutor.
After seeing news reports about the overdoses, Mahtab Massoodnia came forward to investigators saying that she received an envelope from McLaughlin on Sept. 18, 2016, that contained cocaine, Marrett said. Massoodnia is expected to testify in the trial.
The prosecutor showed jurors surveillance video at American Junkie from when the victims overdosed. The video was accompanied by audio of a 911 call in which a dispatcher attempts to coach security guards to do CPR on the victims as paramedics raced to the scene.
In addition to Said, patrons Joshua Selley and Daron Muratyan overdosed, but they were revived with Naloxone, a drug that can block opioids and save the lives of overdose victims, Marrett said. Another patron, Francisco Alvarado, also overdosed at the bar, but not as a result of the drugs McLaughlin is alleged to have distributed, the prosecutor said.
"This is a case of a second job... with tragic consequences," Marrett said.
McLaughlin's attorney, Dan Chambers, said the evidence in the trial will show a "mystery man" was the one who dealt the lethal fentanyl. The surveillance video shows the man going into the bathroom with the four overdose victims, Chambers said.
The unnamed suspect is also seen at the tables of the men, Chambers said. The "mystery man" is seen again returning to the bathroom with the victims and when they exit he returns to their table to resume partying, according to the defense attorney.
Alvarado happened to be partying with a different group of people, Chambers said.
Just before the men overdose, "Who slinks out? That's right, the mystery man," Chambers said.
Chambers noted that police did not recover fentanyl in their search of the bar's lockers.
"There was no fentanyl in (McLaughlin's) home," Chambers said.
The lockers also were not assigned, the defense attorney said.
"The lockers weren't owned by anyone. It was first-come, first served," Chambers said. "They were community lockers."
The attorney also said the locker that prosecutors allege McLaughlin used had multiple DNA matches on it.
"There's nothing with his name on it," in the locker investigators say McLaughlin used, Chambers said. "No personal items in there. And there's multiple people's DNA on that locker and the things in it."
The day after the overdoses, Newport Beach police "turned American Junkie upside down... and there's no fentanyl anywhere," Chambers said. "That fentanyl left that night with the mystery man."
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