Matt Capelouto
Appearances
We're Out of Time
How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Alex, she was very smart. She had an IQ that was off the chart. Keep in mind, she got into college on a full academic scholarship. She was very witty. She was so quick-witted. She would say everybody's special, not just her. So many people who turn to substances, I believe, are these deep empaths. She bore the weight of everybody else's problems on her shoulders.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Sure. And the problems actually date back to 2020, 2021, in terms of when we started having problems trying to get this law passed. In California, it's very difficult to hold a drug dealer accountable for somebody's death because you have to prove something called implied malice.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And that is prosecutors and law enforcement, in order to hold a dealer accountable for someone's death, have to prove that the drug dealer knew the drugs that they provided or were selling were dangerous enough. Knew, knew, or should have known, maybe. That it could cause death. That's right. Okay, and... we pretty much all know drugs are dangerous. That's why it's illegal to sell them.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
But actually proving that is what's challenging and very difficult.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Hard to say anybody these days dealing drugs is ignorant to the dangers of fentanyl. Right. But my daughter's death occurred in 2019 before we had the awareness that we have now. That's right. And so we came up with a law to help address this. If somebody is convicted of a drug offense, they're going to get an admonishment given to them in court, making them aware that
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Dealing drugs, furnishing drugs, providing drugs, manufacturing drugs is dangerous and can result in someone's death. And if your continued activity leads to someone's death, you can be held accountable for murder. This would be the second degree murder. Yes, it does fall under second degree murder, which still comes with a 15 year to life sentence.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And I want to touch on real fast the difference between first degree murder and second degree murder. First degree murder, you intended to kill the person. Second degree murder. You knew what you were doing could result in someone's death. And despite that knowledge, you did it anyways. I can't believe I don't remember that from 1991 in criminal law. Some states refer to it as reckless homicide.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
It's how we convict those drunk driving if they killed somebody for vehicular homicide or vehicular manslaughter. But so we we came up with this admonishment that would be given to a convicted drug dealer in a court by a judge and written provided in writing to the defendant. And they have to acknowledge it. And this now happens.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Ultimately, what we hope is that it will deter somebody from continuing to deal deadly drugs. Well, let's go back for a minute.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
I believe Texas, Florida, a number of other states have passed legislation that mimics more closer our federal statutes. Federally, we have some better laws for dealing with drug-related deaths. But here in California, realize our law is simply a warning. If you abide by it, you have nothing to worry about.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
It's only if you disregard the warning, you continue to deal in deadly drugs, and someone dies as a result. It's only then can that admonishment be used against you to prove that burden of implies analysis. Okay. You guys were given another setback. What was that? Well, we had multiple hearings for Alexandra's law before Senate and Assembly safety committees in Sacramento.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Right, because the first run got shut down.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Alexandra's Law website. We actually have two websites. That goes to stopdrughomicide.org. And then we have alexandraslaw.info, which specifically focuses on Alexandra's Law. Very good. Very good. And what was this? That's what is documented in court records. That is provided to the defendant upon conviction. They sign it, and that will remain on their record for the rest of their lives.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
We still have a long ways to go because now we have to enforce the laws. And we have made... Tremendous progress with law enforcement. But the reality is there's many law enforcement municipalities at the local level that still do not investigate these deaths as homicides or crimes. Tell me about the federal law. distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
The drug dealer involved in my daughter's death was eventually charged under this distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. And it's pretty simple. You distribute drugs illegally and that results in someone's death. You face a 20 year to life sentence.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
That's correct. It's a false sense of security. They don't work all the time. And, you know, there are several measures, harm reduction measures that I support, but I only support them if we have a clear pathway to not just enable these people to continue using drugs, but to get them into recovery and get them help. That's right.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
listen, I've never done drugs in my life, yet somehow drugs have upended my life. And for any parent to think this cannot happen to their family, to their kids, they've simply forgotten what it's like to be a teenager. There's not too many of us who grew up, and if we didn't it ourselves, we had friends who did, siblings who did. You knew people that dabbled in drugs, experimented,
We're Out of Time
How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
you know, whatever you want to call it, partying, getting high, or just trying to deal with, you know, life's issues, depression, anxiety, and anxiety and depression these days are off the charts with young people. Absolutely.
We're Out of Time
How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
You know, didn't bargain for this and did no better. There's no doubt my daughter was naive in her experiment, self-medicating, which I'll say. Kids today are making choices that are no different than our generation when we grew up. The difference is the drugs have changed.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Well, it would be amazing if social media, if we change the rules that protect social media. Right now, any number of crimes can take place on their platforms and they're not held accountable at all.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
She cared about other people more than herself. It led to her self-medicating to deal with this pain. I want to say this about my daughter. The day before she died, I had this conversation with her mom. Mom, I don't know what it is going to be, but God spoke to me and said I was going to save lives. She said, I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I'm going to save lives.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Stop. Supported 110%. Social media platforms are the modern playgrounds for young people. That's where they're at.
We're Out of Time
How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Congressman Daryl Iza is- Right here in California. Yes. In your neck of the woods. Yes. Has introduced a federal version of it. So anybody arrested on federal charges and convicted would also receive this admonishment.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And the great thing about that is state prosecutors would be able to use that to help them with state prosecutions, which is what we need because ultimately our federal agencies, they don't have the manpower to take on all these cases. Right.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Yeah, if they made sure these cases were investigated as crimes. He'll do it.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
I will say this. Yeah. You know, in just the first week or two of his administration, we heard fentanyl more times than we did in the previous four years under the previous administration. So that is a plus.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
All day long. One of the things people don't realize, through all this fentanyl awareness, we hear about all of the deaths, record number of deaths. What we don't hear about as much is the record levels of addiction that are taking place because of these deaths. And deaths are on the decrease. Over the last year, we have seen a bit of a decrease. Yeah, you know why that is? You know why that is?
We're Out of Time
How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Oh, here, what you'd like to say on that? They're dead. Yes.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Right. But what continues to fuel...
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
that is spreading out of hand is addiction these drugs are so addictive it is so hard to get off of these drugs your your 30 60 90 day treatment programs from what i understand and i'm no expert on addiction that's okay there's what there's one in the room um you know we're talking upwards of at least a year to get off of these drugs for your brain to rewire itself right and
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Wow.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And that's why we need to focus heavily on education to stop people from taking these drugs before they even start. All right. So that's that is clear.
We're Out of Time
How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
She was very witty. Her sense of humor was uncanny. She was so quick-witted. I couldn't argue with my daughter because she would always have better comebacks than me. But she was... When she was a teenager, and we saw signs early on with cutting herself, she was diagnosed with what's called major depressive disorder. And she had suffered from clinical depression.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And it was like 50 grand a month, right? I don't think it was quite that much. You could lose it zero there. Oh, it was 55 grand a month? Yeah. But we wanted to call out the senators that kept... Voting against Alexandra's law and not passing it through to the floor for a vote. And it was recommended to me that I do not do that since it was being adopted by Prop 36. Right. It passed in November.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Yes.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Well, keep in mind, despite the setback in 2023, we were getting a lot of support. We actually had the majority of our state Senate on board as co-authors of the bill. We just couldn't get it passed out of the public safety committee controlled by five senators because three of those five, actually four of those five, would not support it. So they couldn't
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
So we couldn't get it to the full floor for a vote. If we got it there, it would have passed. Do you know the names of the four people that didn't support it? So Scott Wiener represents a district in San Francisco. Stephen Bradford represents a district here in Los Angeles. Nancy Skinner represents an area near Berkeley. And Ayesha Wahab. Ayesha Wahab was the other. Wahab? Wahab. Wahab. Wahab.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And I think her district is somewhere, is either Oakland or around Oakland. All right.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Not all of them are still on the safety committee anymore, but they're still moving on in politics, and these people do not belong in politics. No, they don't. They don't belong. They don't belong anywhere. So what ended up being great, a blessing in disguise, and it's amazing how things have just worked out the way they have. When did it start?
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Well, you know, we first introduced this in 2020, and it first had its first hearing in early 2021. But every time we reintroduced it, We watered it down a little bit to just try to get something to pass. To make it more palatable. To make it more palatable. Ultimately, by the end, it was specific to just fentanyl.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Originally, we had it, somebody would get the admonishment for dealing methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and a couple other hard drugs. We narrowed it down to just fentanyl. So not carfentanil or xylizine? No, any analogs of fentanyl, they would get the admonishment. But also, primarily because fentanyl is now being put into all these other drugs. All of them. Right.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Anybody who's dealing drugs, we want to get the admonishment. But in an effort to make it pass, because this is one of the arguments by the Senate Safety Committee, they mentioned that it might be more palatable to them if we just narrowed it down to fentanyl, which we did. Right. We did some things to make sure a minor wouldn't get this admonishment.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
They were dead set on if somebody is under 18 caught dealing drugs, they shouldn't get the admonishment. Keep in mind, I'm of the opposite belief on that. As a parent, if my child was dealing drugs, I want this. Give them this warning. It's just a warning. Scare the heck out of them. I don't want them to continue dealing drugs. Exactly. Exactly. It's just insane.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
She had nothing to be depressed about. But she just, well, she bore the weight of everybody else's problems on her shoulders. And I listened to a podcast with you kind of explaining this, and it clicked with me. You guys are similar in this way. And so many people who turn to substances, I believe, are these deep empaths. And... It was tough because she cared about other people more than herself.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Yeah. Yeah. And we can't give a warning to somebody between 17 and 18 and convicted of dealing drugs. Yeah. Just because they happen to be 17, 16.
We're Out of Time
How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
So when Prop 36 came along and the people who were behind it, they added Alexandra's Law to it and they kept it in its original format.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Yes. Yeah. When Prop 36 was announced and we started to get more, when was it announced? Oh, gosh. It had to probably around... March of 2024. And there had to be a lot of money raised because we need, you know, the ballot measure process. California doesn't make it easy. Realize a ballot measure is a way around our legislature.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
So our legislature sets the rules on how you get something to qualify for the ballot. And it takes lots of signatures to get signatures these days, takes lots of money. You have a very short period of time to do it and you really have to have all the stars and you have to be about 100 percent over the figure that they give you because they do this Jedi mind trick nonsense.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Right. But this passed insane. Prop 36 passed overwhelmingly. Just over 70% of Californians voted in support. Wow. It's like one of the highest ballot measures that Californians supported in history.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And Prop 36 for your listeners and viewers so they know it. But that's important, though.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And I think it's your extreme liberals. We did have a lot of Democratic support. The mayor of San Diego. You're exactly right. You're exactly right. It's common sense. But we've let Sacramento run amok with these handful of legislators that just have too much power. And ultimately, now they abuse their power because they can. They're in positions of control.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
But so your viewers know, Prop 36 dealt with a few things. It also dealt with the rampant retail theft that's been taking place in California. The And what people don't, what our legislators fail to tie into the retail theft is a good portion of that is because of drug use. You know, people are stealing to fuel their addiction. And so you curb one, you're going to help the other.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And in addition to Alexandra's law being part of it, one of the things I think this is really great, and I'm going to be very curious to get your take on it is, On your third arrest for a drug offense.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
It is, you now have a choice between going to prison Or getting treatment. Whereas prior to Prop 36, you faced no prison time, and there was no incentive to go into treatment. I mean, you really had to go in on your own free will, but so many of these people are never going to get to that point or could perhaps die first. So not on your first, not on your second.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Your third conviction of a drug offense. Conviction. Conviction. Okay.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Remember, this is California, but it was only then you get the option of mandated court, mandated treatment, or you're going behind bars. And we believe this is going to nudge more people to get treatment. Treatment sounds better than going behind bars. Well, treatment's always better, but here's the thing.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And keep in mind, another aspect of this is if you successfully complete the treatment, you can have the record expunged. Because we don't want this to hurt your heart. What the hell does successfully complete the treatment mean? Well, that's out of my realm of expertise.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And ultimately, it led to her self-medicating to deal with this pain. And, you know, some of the specifics to her case were that we found out once it was being investigated. She was seeking Percocet. What's Percocet? It's a painkiller, right? She took this by herself before going to bed two nights before Christmas in 2019. It's not like she was out partying.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
So we don't have that spelled out in the law. It is spelled out.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Sure. And, you know, I will tell you this. The people behind Prop 36, they have gotten experts involved and and and they have really taught people in the field working on this. But excellent. We'll see. But one of I'll be the judge of that if you don't mind. Yeah. Don't mind one bit. You should be on the panel advising them. Well, I wasn't asked.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Everybody thinks they're smarter than me, but that's fine. Well, maybe I can, you know, it's so, it's so, maybe I can do that introduction, but something else to fill in. We don't talk enough about the street level drug dealers driving this crisis. The dealer who sold to my daughter said, Weeks after knowing she was dead, reached out to his supplier to purchase more of these pills.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
It took two years for him to finally be arrested. I would be foolish to believe that my daughter was his only victim. For sure. For sure. And we need to, you know, we talk about holding China accountable. My beliefs are, and the cartels, we are not going to stop these drugs from coming into our country. We've never been able to stop drugs from coming into our country.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And now we're talking about a drug that is fatal in microscopic dosages. We seal our border. It's going to come by boat. It's going to come by plane. It's going to be manufactured here. In addition to the robust education that we need in our school system to our youth, we need to hold these dealers accountable, these street-level dealers. But that's what this law just did. Absolutely.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
But we still need law enforcement to make arrests so they get this admonished. Well, Nathan's not going to tolerate. Nathan's not. There are good DAs coming on board. But here's a statistic that I hope we improve on. Less than 2% of all drug deaths result in the conviction of a drug dealer. Less than 2% of these drug dealers should be getting away with murder.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
They write it up as an accidental overdose. Blame the user.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
It's done every day. Most of these deaths are. Why? Because they put the burden of blame on the person who they say chose to take the drugs.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
That's why many counties have now formed fentanyl task forces to properly investigate. Okay. Let's, let's, let's, this is, wow. All right. We're one of the lucky few that got some semblance of justice. Okay.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
People put this stigma on those who use drugs that's completely unjust. I reflect back on my youth. And I said I never did drugs. But you know what? I did a lot of other stuff that was really shitty. And from an ethical standpoint, far worse than doing something that's going to harm myself. But yet for some reason, society puts such, you know, the stigma on people who use substances.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Yeah. Well, keep in mind, the admonishment will be given. A lot of people are mistaken and they think a death has to occur to get the admonishment. No, just the dealing. There's the dealing. Right.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
We mirrored our current DUI legislation. When somebody gets convicted of driving under the influence, they get something called the Watson admonishment. Once we enacted that and people started getting the Watson admonishment, we saw a dramatic reduction in DUI fatalities. I believe wholeheartedly the more people that get this admonishment, not everybody, not nine. No, but you're right.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
You're right. You're going to see a significant... And I'll tell you why that is in a minute, but go on. There's going to be an element of people that are going to be like, oh shit, I better not deal again.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Well, obviously this person didn't learn their lesson and they're willing to risk it. But if they are able to tie this person to a death, now prosecutors will have a better chance of convicting this person of murder. The answer is nothing.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Did anything change? Under Prop 36, there are also new laws that have been enacted that come with harsher penalties for someone with multiple drug violations. So there is something. Yeah.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
So, yeah, they still have to investigate. So it starts there. Law enforcement, you are correct in that nothing will happen if there's no investigation. And law enforcement has just widespread been slow to start investigating all these.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And it's unfair. The only thing my daughter is guilty of is hurting because she cared so much. Let me ask you a question.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Well, you drive home a very good point with what you just said. There is an element of people that are going to have that weighing on them, on their conscience, and they are going to abide by it. Sure. I'll give you an example.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Reach out to me personally. I'm not big on social media. I do Facebook. I'm easily found on Facebook. I can be reached. Where can you be found on Facebook? Matt Capilouto. And I'm part of a nonprofit called Stop Drug Homicide. uh, stop drug homicide.org. We'll have my contact information. Um, I work with a network of parents that are all out there fighting the good fight.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
We, we work together, we support each other. And, um, I, I unfortunately welcome more parents, uh, into our, our fold. Um, we're here to offer support and, uh, I hope there's a day when I don't need any more parents. But if you're out there and you're in seek of a support group, please reach out.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
She was prescribed psych medications for a period of time. And she got off of those. And we thought that was a good thing. Because those all along was she on them. Probably about a year. And she finally said, you know, I do not like the way these make me feel. Okay. And so we thought that was good.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
At the end of this month will be seven months.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And I got to say, I can't take all the credit. The right doors have opened. There are many, many parents and advocates out there who are fighting the good fight. I want to recognize them.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
I would be foolish to believe that my daughter was his only victim. And for any person,
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Alexandra's dad. Nothing could be more of an honor. All right, man. It's not about me.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
It's about the lives that are going to be lost if we don't step up and do something now.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
I'm gonna work on it. Immediately. Good. When can I get it? Yeah. Shoot. Let's hope for in the next couple weeks. Why not?
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Let's have it ready to go by the beginning of the next four years. That's when kids need to see this. I'll be back in school.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Then I'm going to call a couple of friends of mine that deal with school district and I'm going to get that done.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Two or three times. And the problem was, and I wish my wife was here. She was the one who really tried to help Alex out as much as possible with these issues. But we went from doctor to doctor to doctor. And Alex even said... Mom, these doctors aren't listening. They don't get it. They're not understanding. They're not listening. They just want to prescribe me something and have me go away.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Yeah, they're full of shit.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
They're not desensitized to the process of helping another human being. They're the only five I've ever met. And the second I meet them, I hire them. It's amazing. 58 years old, I found five guys.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Ah, Craig. I want to say this about my daughter. The day before she died, I had this conversation with her mom. Mom, I don't know what it is going to be, But God spoke to me and said I was going to save lives. She said, I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I'm going to save lives.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Okay. She was going to school for social work because she wanted to help others. And she wanted to figure out what was wrong with her. Yeah.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Yeah. Multiple times she would say, I just want to feel normal. I just want to feel normal. You said the Percocet is a painkiller.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
You know, it's heartbreaking as her father to hear that. You know, you don't want to see any of your kids suffering. I believe Alex was introduced to opioids while away at college. She started hanging around kind of a bad... Group of kids. Yeah, I want to say bad. So we live in Temecula, Southern California, and she wanted to go to Arizona State University. She applied for a few colleges.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
They gave her a full academic scholarship and we and she wanted to go away and just get away from everybody. Funny story real quick. She's a natural blonde. When she was going off to college, she dyed her hair brown. And we asked, why the heck did you do that? She said, mom, dad, I just want to have a new identity. And her mom spoke up. Well, you do realize nobody knows you there, right?
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Sounds so funny. But I believe it was there at college. Somebody introduced her to opioids. And, you know, it was in her sophomore year that she was at home on Christmas break. And this blindsided us. She had spent the day of December 22nd all day Christmas shopping with her mom. And it was that night. She went to bed and we found her the next week. Is that the only pill you found?
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
That half a pill?
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
wanted to get a little higher and then took another half i don't believe she would have had time to take another one and no maybe she took the other one first um my i doubt that um because i don't think she would have been all these pills they sent them out for laboratory testing they all contain uh very lethal amounts of fentanyl all of them all of them yeah and uh um
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
You know, the dealer who was eventually arrested denied selling her pills. Then he said, no, I only sold her a couple. And but when they sent the pills out for lesion, yes, he was eventually charged federally. But distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. How long is he in jail for? Well, this is good to touch on. He originally faced 20 years to life in prison. There was a plea deal.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
And this plea deal was important to me. The plea deal reduced the 20 year to life sentence, which would be mandatory, to up to 20 years to the discretion of the judge. How long did he get? I want to first read you. We'll take one minute. I want to read you as part of the plea deal, what this defendant signed and acknowledged. And he did this.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
The deal was we would remove that 20 year to life sentence. Keep in mind, all the way up until this point, he tried to deny everything. Specifically, on the night of December 22, 2019, Alexandra Capilouto asked Defendant if he could sell her Percocet pills, a prescription painkiller.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
defendant agreed to sell alexandra percocet pills defendant drove to alexandra's home in temecula california and sold her what turned out to be approximately 11 counterfeit oxycodone pills that he later described to law enforcement as blue oxys or m30s defendant knew it was illegal for him to sell the pills and that they contained fentanyl or some other federally controlled substance
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Upon going to bed the night of December 22, 2019, Alexandra Capilouto ingested half of one of the pills. The fentanyl entered her system, poisoning her body, and caused her death. This was back in 2019. I don't believe there are too many drug dealers out there that don't know the crap they are selling does or could contain fentanyl. How about there's not one? Yeah. I agree.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
But the reason this was important to me, one of the arguments by those senators against Alexandra's law was, well, these drug dealers don't even know what they're selling. I wanted this. I wanted this confession from a 20-year-old drug dealer to be able to shove in their face and say, not in my daughter's case. Don't give me this BS that they don't know what they're selling.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
Eligible for parole when? He'll serve seven and a half. You have to serve 85% of your time federally, which is better than in California. Very good, very good. And all I can hope is that in 2030, when he's released, that he's learned his lesson and never does this again.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
If I can, I will. And another thing we did was, and we set federal precedents in this, we filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against this drug dealer. And we won. But he tried to dismiss it by filing bankruptcy while he was behind bars. So this would mean by the time, and we won a $5.8 million judgment. And by the time he's released, that would have been wiped clean.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
We took him to federal bankruptcy court and we argued in front of a federal bankruptcy judge. who ended up rolling in our favor. And without going into all the details, the bottom line is this. He will not be able to dismiss this judgment ever. That will follow him for the rest of his life.
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How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36
If he ever owns a house, to put a lien on it, becomes into an inheritance, we can collect on it, and we can garnish wages.