Daisy Joy Bankofier and Katrina Joy hold the portraits of Adam and Clifford Joy in Minden on Feb. 23, 2024, 11 days after the brothers Feb. 11 poisoning.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
The law that would have allowed homicide charges in the deaths of four people who consumed cocaine laced with fentanyl during a 2024 South Lake Tahoe Super Bowl Party wasn’t in effect, according to El Dorado District Attorney Vern Pierson.
Clifford and Adam Joy, Keely Pereira and Abraham Lemus were found dead on Feb. 12, 2024, by Clifford Joy’s wife, Katrina.
According to a release issued on Monday, Pierson said that the law that would allow his office to charge Timothy Allen Pannell, 31, with second-degree implied malice murder was not viable in this case.
Pierson said that on the night prior to their discovery, Pannell allegedly realized that he’d sold the cocaine laced with fentanyl.
“Upon realizing his error, Mr. Pannell made multiple frantic attempts to warn the victims — placing at least 17 unanswered phone calls — and later drove through the victim’s neighborhood in an unsuccessful effort to prevent harm.”
Pierson said that to secure a homicide conviction, his office would have to prove that Pannell “knowingly acted in conscious disregard for human life.”
“In this case, the evidence clearly shows Mr. Pannell believed he was distributing cocaine and made efforts to warn the victims upon discovering his mistake — negating the intent required for a murder charge,” Pierson said. “Moreover, under California Supreme Court precedent, furnishing cocaine is not inherently dangerous to human life, so a second-degree murder charge became legally impossible and federal charges were pursued.”
Pannell is being charged with distribution of fentanyl.
Pierson said Proposition 36, which passed in November 2024, requires the courts to warn people they could be charged with murder if they sell illegal drugs that result in death. That law didn’t go into effect until December 2024.
Pannell was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison on April 9, 2024, in connection with a 2021 arrest. He spent less than a year incarcerated after his April 8 release from prison.