LAKEPORT, Calif. — A Lucerne man arrested last year in connection with the fentanyl death of a teenager has been sentenced to state prison.

Joe Nathan Boggs Jr., 28, was in court on Friday for sentencing before Judge J. David Markham.

Boggs was arrested in June of 2024 for what officials said at the time was Lake County’s first charged fentanyl homicide case for the death of 17-year-old Illeanna Makena Frease of Lakeport.

Frease died Nov. 10, 2023, after authorities said Boggs furnished her with fentanyl.

The District Attorney’s Office originally filed four felony counts against Boggs: second-degree murder; an adult using a minor as an agent to violate controlled substance law; sale, distribution or transportation of a controlled substance; and possession for sale of a controlled substance, as Lake County News has reported.

Boggs, who has remained in the Lake County Jail since his arrest, was set for trial to begin on Sept. 17, according to court records.

However, he reached an agreement with the District Attorney’s Office and entered a plea in the case on Aug. 8, court records show.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Rich Watson told Lake County News that Boggs pleaded no contest to furnishing a controlled substance to a minor and involuntary manslaughter. 

Judge Markham sentenced Boggs to 10 years in state prison, Watson said.

Frease was a member of the Elem Colony of Pomo. At the time of her death, her mother, Michaela John, went public with allegations that Boggs — who also is Indigenous — had trafficked her daughter.

John also said that Boggs, who has a lengthy criminal history, “operated both on and off tribal lands openly, with no regard for the damage he was causing. Without accountability.”

Frease’s family attended one of Boggs’ early court appearances wearing red t-shirts with Frease’s picture on them.

A year after Boggs’ arrest, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office made its second fentanyl homicide arrest when it took Ryan John Stahl, 40, of Lucerne, into custody for the February death of Carissa Morton, 28, of Nice.

Stahl, who also remains in custody in the Lake County Jail, was held to answer in the case after his Aug. 28 preliminary hearing and is scheduled for trial in December. 

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