Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Moms of UNR students who died of opioid overdoses warn others

RENO — They were good sons with promising futures who died of drug overdoses less than two months before they were set to graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno.

UNR seniors Jordan Watts and Ben Taylor died just 15 days apart in March 2019 from drugs laced with a fatal dose of the powerful painkiller fentanyl.

Their mothers, Robyn Watts and Teri Taylor, told the Reno Gazette Journal that their sons were recreational users who bought a couple of pills, unaware they were tainted with the deadly opioid.

“Jordan was an amazing boy. He was loved by everybody,” said Watts, whose son died on March 2, two weeks before his 22nd birthday.

Ben Taylor died two weeks later on March 17.

Never friends, the two are now linked by devastated mothers who sat next to each other in a courtroom when the drug dealers tied to their sons' deaths were sentenced on Dec. 18. Two were sent to prison, and a third received probation.

"Looking at the boys responsible for our sons’ deaths ... it didn't seem like a couple of them got it," Taylor said after the sentencing.

Watts said it was important to share the story and to be in the courtroom for the defendants to see that what they did to the families.

"I think the reason we really did this was to get this out in the community, especially in the UNR community," she said.

At an emotional hearing, Judge Egan Walker and Assistant District Attorney Amos Stege talked about the impact drug dealers have on the community.

As he looked at the defendants, Walker said he had no doubt the drugs they sold led to children being taken away from parents and put in foster care. He called the drug problem a pandemic.

"Drug dealers kill kids,” Stege said. "And those boys' moms are in the courtroom today."

Taylor and Watts went to police with phone messages linking their sons' purchases to the group of drug dealers that sold to students.

Tyler Winters, 25, pleaded guilty to attempted possession of trafficking quantity of a controlled substance and possession of a firearm with altered or removed serial numbers. He was given 36 to 120 months in prison.

Lucas Cuellar, 25, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell and possession of firearm by an addict. He was sentenced to 12 to 48 months in prison.

Alec Donovan, 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of the sale of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with the intent the sell. He was given a suspended jail sentence and five years’ probation.

UNR said it does not track the cause of student deaths. A public records request filed by the Reno Gazette Journal shows that at least eight students have died of drug overdoses in Washoe County since 2017. The records were based on a list of student deaths from the school and information on the cause of death from the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office.

Most of the cases involve drugs and a mix of fentanyl, a powerful opioid that's contributed to a deadly epidemic in the U.S.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, drug dealers mix fentanyl with other drugs because it is cheap. The drugs are pressed into molds to look as if they are directly from a pharmacy but are made in makeshift labs.

Fentanyl can be 100 times more potent than morphine, the institute said.

“The university recognizes that the opioid epidemic is a national, state and local issue,” UNR Dean of Students Kimberly Thomas said in response to questions from the newspaper. “Given the number of students at the university, people across campus are working to educate our community about this problem.”

Both mothers say they want more people to know what happened.

“No parent should have to go through this,” Watts said.

“Have the conversation,” Taylor said. “If you aren’t getting them from a doctor and pharmacy, you don’t know what they are. One pill can kill you.”

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