SEPTEMBER 21, 2022 LOCAL TAKES ON FIVE-DAY KAYAK TRIP
THE HAYS HAWKS FOOTBALL TEAM DOMINATES PAGE 11
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Hays Free Press
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HaysFreePress.com
Vol. 128 • No. 28
Serving Hays County, TX
One family’s story of losing a child to fentanyl Man gets 60 years “I feel like Noah’s for child abuse BY BRITTANY ANDERSON AND AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN
HAYS COUNTY — What feels like something that would only happen in a far-off community, or is just a “big city problem,” has quickly become reality for Hays County residents: fentanyl is here, and it’s killing children as young as 15. Fentanyl is an approved pharmaceutical drug that is used every day in hospitals and prescribed to patients who have severe or chronic pain. According to Dr. Lucas Hill, a clinical associate professor at the University of Texas in Austin and director of the Texas Opioid Training Initiative, it is safe and effective to use in a clinical setting as prescribed. However, fentanyl can be illicitly manufactured into counterfeit pills, meaning that it was not produced by a pharmaceutical company, but instead in a clandestine lab or someone’s basement or bathtub. Some drug dealers will use fentanyl to mix with other drugs as a cheaper option to sell their product while producing a powerful high. But doing so in such a haphazard way can be incredibly lethal — only two milligrams can kill the average adult. “It's a potent synthetic opioid, and when the dose is not calibrated carefully, or when it's not produced in a pharmaceutical setting where everything is controlled and predictable, then that's when you introduce a lot of risks,” Dr. Hill said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2021, there were over 107,000 deaths in the U.S. from drug poisoning overdoses, with approximately 70% of those related to opioids and fentanyl. Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett said that the department has investigated 25 fentanyl-related
death has a purpose”
overdoses in 2022. Seven resulted in deaths, four of which were Hays CISD students — two 15-year-olds and two 17-year-olds. The district quickly worked to partner with local law enforcement and other agencies to address this problem. Following news of the first student fentanyl death in July, the community continued to be shaken by three more, all within a month. Noah Rodriguez, 15, was one of those students. Noah’s parents, Janel Rodriguez and Brandon Dunn, described him as being genuine, kind, and a jokester. A Johnson High School sophomore, he was athletic and loved football and basketball, had many friends and was a great brother to his two little sisters. His youngest sibling, a baby brother, was born just two weeks prior to his death. “Noah was not a bad kid at all,” Janel said. “He was not disrespectful. He got into some trouble here and there, but he wasn’t from a troubled home. We’re a good family. We’re stable.” Janel said they started noticing a change in Noah around the time COVID-19 first hit in March 2020. A former honor roll student who took AP classes, his grades began to “tank.” He started staying out later and sneaking out, and they would notice slurring in his speech at times. Most notably, he stopped hanging out with friends he grew up with and started introducing them to friends they had never heard of. “Noah was always very clean, wanting to take a shower, brush his teeth,” Janel added. “He started doing less and less of that. At first, I was like, ‘he’s just getting older.’ But then I thought, ‘no, something’s not right.’” At some point, Noah’s
STAFF REPORT
COURTESY OF JANEL RODRIGUEZ
Noah with his mother Janel, middle, father Brandon, right, and two little sisters. experimentation with marijuana escalated to using pills. In May, he overdosed and was in the hospital for a week, leading to what Janel and Brandon thought was a wakeup call for everybody. After being discharged, he was engaging with the family again. “Just the happy Noah we had lost,” Janel said, adding that they would do daily check-ins with him. Janel recalled Aug. 20, the last day they all spent together: swimming and barbecuing with family while planning for his 16th birthday on Oct. 9. Later in the evening, as Noah was being dropped off at a friend’s house, she made Brandon not drive off until Noah was in the house. “I wanted to see him walk inside,” Janel said. “That was the last time I saw my son.” Hours later, she would receive a phone call at midnight from his friend’s mom: “I think Noah overdosed.” Her daughter was heard screaming in the background. It was about half an hour later before Janel and Brandon could leave their house, as they had to find
someone to stay with their four-year-old, 18-monthold and two-week old. They frantically called family members to go to the house where Noah was, who were able to arrive in minutes. Paramedics worked on Noah for 45 minutes, using two injections of Narcan, a life-saving medicine that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. But by the time Janel and Brandon arrived, it was too late. Officers on scene found counterfeit Tylenol-Codeine #3 pills. At Noah's service, Janel encouraged every child that came up to her to say something if they knew something, saying that “you’re not being a good friend if you don’t try to stop or help the situation.” “I know you keep hearing that parents need to talk to their children, but children need to talk to children. Because right now, their friends are their biggest influences,” Janel said. Janel and Brandon tried putting Noah into rehab but kept getting denied, saying it was because he had to consent, even as a minor —
See FENTANYL, page 12
HAYS COUNTY — Jose NicolasGonzalez, 45, was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Sept. 15 for two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. NicolasGonzalez’s Jose Nicolas-Gonzalez trial began on Sept. 12. The jury learned that he assaulted a young female relative repeatedly beginning from when she was about nine years old. He had access to the child on occasions when her mother took another relative to chemotherapy appointments. The child testified that on multiple occasions while at Nicolas-Gonzalez’s house, the defendant placed his hand inside her clothes and used his fingers and hands to sexually assault her. Law enforcement became involved in Dec. 2019, when the child made an outcry of abuse to her mother. The child was forensically interviewed at Roxanne’s House, Hays County’s regional child advocacy center. The child related the abuse to the forensic interviewer, and, later, to a sexual assault nurse examiner. Nicolas-Gonzalez’s attorneys argued the child fabricated the abuse, but the jury disagreed and returned verdicts of guilty on both counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child. After a punishment hearing, the jury returned verdicts calling for 60 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on each count. Senior Judge Dan Mills, sitting by assignment in the 453rd District Court, pronounced the sentence. Hays County Criminal District Attorney Wes Mau congratulated Assistant Criminal District Attorney Catherine Schneider who led the prosecution with assistance from Court Chief Ben Gillis, as well as the officers and detectives with the Hays County Sheriff’s Office for their work in seeking justice in the case. “It comes as no surprise that Hays County jurors have no tolerance for predators who target children,” Mau said. “Hopefully, this sentence will not only prevent Mr. Nicolas-Gonzalez from victimizing anyone else but also send a message to others who are inclined to believe they can take advantage of children without consequence.”
STRONGER TOGETHER
Nonprofit encourages cancer patients
BY AMIRA VAN LEEUWEN
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Geoff Pastrick was diagnosed with Stage 4 Burkitt’s Lymphoma, an aggressive blood cancer, in February 2019 and passed away in May 2020. But after his diagnosis, family discussions regarding treatments, clinic visits and hospital stays, Primed 2 Fight Foundation was born. The local nonprofit organization's mission
is to bring joy and encouragement to pediatric cancer patients and their families through My Chemo Fairy® Gift Sets. The organization is a collaborative effort between Pastrick’s sister Stephanie Parker, her husband Bryan Parker, Pastrick and his wife, Heather. Parker would go to the hospital every three weeks to help him with his chemotherapy. Parker said she used to give her brother goodie
H.O.M.E CENTER GIVES AND RECEIVES – PAGE 6
bags with snacks every chemo session and one day, her sister-in-law was walking down the staircase and said, “It looks like the chemo fairy came.” “We kind of ran with that idea,” Parker said. My Chemo Fairy® Gift Sets include a boy or girl fairy, a storybook and a ‘You Got This!’ bag filled with different treats. The book, authored by Parker, is a story of her and her brother.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
See NONPROFIT, page 12 Geoff Pastrick with his family.
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