A Somerset County man has pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl and cocaine resulting in the deaths of four men, one in Franklin and three in North Brunswick, according to Acting U.S. Attorney and Special Attorney Alina Habba.
Mauricio Gutierrez, 52, of the Somerset section of Franklin, pleaded guilty on Spt. 10 before U.S. District Court Judge Zahid N. Quraishi to two counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, and two counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026. Each of the four counts is punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison, and the sentence of each count may run consecutively, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to court documents and statements, on June 22, 2022 Gutierrez distributed fentanyl on two separate occasions from his home which resulted in the deaths of four people in North Brunswick and Franklin Township.
Court papers state three men were found unresponsive in a black Jeep in the parking lot of a North Brunswick bar on June 24, 2022. When police arrived the three men had been taken out of the Jeep and bystanders were trying to resuscitate them.
The officers administered Narcan in an attempt to resuscitate them, but two were pronounced dead when they arrived at the hospital and the third died two days later.
That same day, police found an unconscious man slumped over the wheel of his vehicle in a shopping center in Franklin. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Traces of fentanyl were found in the North Brunswick and Franklin vehicles, according to court documents, and investigators were able to connect Gutierrez to the overdoses through text messages sent to three of the victims. Autopsies showed all four people died of fentanyl overdoses.
Gutierrez was arrested on Sept. 27, 2023 and found to be in possession of cocaine in his car and home. He admitted that even after becoming aware of the deaths of the four people in 2022, he intended to distribute the cocaine seized by police, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Habba thanked the North Brunswick and Franklin police departments for their assistance with the case.
Email: srussell@gannettnj.com
Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Somerset man pleads guilty to selling fentanyl in four overdose deaths