Detectives in Sacramento arrested a man on suspicion of murder last week after he admitted to giving fentanyl to a 32-year-old woman who died from an overdose of the synthetic opioid, police said.

Kyle Lawrence Firebaugh, 31, was arrested Oct. 9 in connection with the Dec. 10, 2023, death of 32-year-old Bianca Bewley, the Sacramento Police Department announced Tuesday in a news release. This is the first time this department

has made a homicide arrest for a fentanyl death.

Firebaugh was booked at the Sacramento County Main Jail, where he remained in custody Tuesday ineligible for bail. Along with the murder charge, he faces a felony charge of possessing drugs for the purpose of sales, jail records show.

Firebaugh appeared for his arraignment hearing on Friday afternoon in Sacramento Superior Court. He is scheduled to return to court Oct. 28 for further proceedings in this murder case, court records show.

Bewley was found dead 10 months ago in her home in Sacramento.

Police said Firebaugh had been in communication with Bewley “about fentanyl” in the days leading up to her death. He later admitted to investigators that he supplied narcotics and was found to have purchased a substantial amount of fentanyl just hours before Bewley’s death, according to police.

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said this homicide case “underscores the deadly threat” of fentanyl.

“Fentanyl is not just a drug — it’s a dangerous and lethal substance, and this arrest reflects our continued commitment to fighting its presence on our streets,” Lester said in the news release.

This is the first time Lester’s department has made an arrest on suspicion of homicide in connection with a fentanyl death.

Fentanyl is a powerful and potentially addictive drug that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin. The California Department of Justice has said two milligrams of the opioid can result in overdose and potentially death.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper in September announced that his deputies confiscated 500 grams of fentanyl that recently arrested inmates tried to smuggle into jail facilities this year, enough fentanyl to kill the entire population of Elk Grove.

Prosecutors in California in recent years have taken a new approach to fentanyl deaths: filing murder charges against people who sell or provide fentanyl to someone who later dies from ingesting the drugs.

Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire’s office has filed homicide charges against five defendants accused in fentanyl deaths; four of them have been convicted and the fifth homicide case is pending.

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho’s office has previously filed homicide charges against four other defendants accused in fentanyl deaths; those cases are still pending.

Fentanyl deaths in Sacramento County have been on a steady rise in recent years, but now seem to be declining. So far this year, 161 people in Sacramento have died from fentanyl, officials say.