A Central Coast man is headed to prison for a long time. 32-year-old Kaelen Wendal was found guilty of smuggling Fentanyl into a unit of the Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail resulting in the death of an inmate in 2022. According to Cal Coast News, he traded the drugs to Michael Villapania for commissary goods. Villiapania sold the fentanyl to two other inmates who overdosed on the drug. One would recover. The other died. Wendal is facing a mandatory 20-year sentence with the possibility of life in prison.
