Investigators found their suspect by paying close attention to a televised Trail Blazers basketball game.
The young man with a mustache seated behind the team’s bench, over the right shoulder of then-Coach Terry Stotts, on May 3, 2019, resembled Billy Ray Trueblood.
He was wanted for selling the fentanyl pills that claimed the life of a 30-year-old Beaverton man two months earlier, on March 4, 2019.
An observant Blazers fan — who also happened to be a Washington County sheriff’s deputy on the case — was pretty sure the man who popped on his TV screen was the suspect that he was seeking, according to court records. The investigators hadn’t had any luck finding Trueblood at either of his two addresses.
The deputy called the lead investigator, Hillsboro police Officer James Weed, who turned on the game and confirmed that the spectator in the blue shirt was their guy, “Billy.” They alerted Portland police at the game and officers arrested Trueblood about 10 p.m. at the Moda Center. He was carrying a large amount of cash and an Altoids tin that contained an assortment of pills, according to court records.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman accepted a prosecutor’s recommendation and sentenced Trueblood II, 33, to three years and six months in prison for selling the counterfeit oxycodone pills made of fentanyl that killed Alex Reser, a 30-year-old accountant.
Reser, an Oregon State University graduate and wrestler, had become addicted to painkillers after he was prescribed oxycodone for a back injury suffered while wrestling in college, his father said. That led to his opioid addiction.
Reser had returned from a weeklong family ski trip to Europe in March 2019 to celebrate his mother’s birthday and had texted Trueblood, looking for “blues,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Lewis Burkhart.
Reser took a Lyft ride from Portland International Airport to downtown Portland and met Trueblood near his apartment to buy pills.
The next morning, Reser’s roommates at his Washington County apartment thought he was sleeping off his jet lag.
But when one roommate checked on him, they found him unconscious on the floor of a bedroom. Rolled-up dollars bills, white powder and different containers and bags of blue pills were in the bedroom and bathroom, according to court records.
A search of his phone showed that Trueblood was his only source of the drugs since college. The two had known each another for 10 years.
Trueblood sold Reser about 700 counterfeit oxycodone pills between May 2018 and January 2019, a review of their text messages revealed, according to the prosecutor.
“He had so much to live for, but he died one day after we returned” from vacation, his father, Marty Reser, said in court.
Alex Reser, raised in Beaverton, graduated from OSU in 2012 with a degree in accounting. His family described him as a talented athlete and avid movie watcher who enjoyed spending time with his family and friends.
His father said his son was taking OxyContin on and off after college due to his back injury and struggling to stop.
“Only Trueblood was his source,” the elder Reser said, adding that his son had told him that Trueblood also was supplying pills to a number of other Oregon State athletes.
Trueblood was charged only with selling to Reser. Last May, he pleaded guilty to distribution of fentanyl.
Marty Reser urged the judge not to give Trueblood any leniency in sentencing, pointing out that he wasn’t caught until he was spotted on TV.
“For Billy, it was all about the buck,” Marty Reser said. He asked the judge to consider the daily pain he and his family have to live with in Alex’s absence.
“We were hoping for justice because our son Alex is not coming back,” he said. “No one will ever again have the opportunity to spend time, create more memories with Alex.” Marty Reser is part of the family that owns Reser’s Fine Foods.
Nikki Bianchini, Alex’s sister, said her brother was her best friend and described him as a kind, warm soul “who lived with no fear” and had a “childlike spirit.” He loved water sports, baseball, wrestling and skiing, she said.
He was open about his addiction with her, she said, because “I saw him through the pain and suffering” without judgment.
“Alex was a functioning addict,” she said. At the time of his death, he was working as a manager for the accounting firm Moss Adams.
Burkhart said Trueblood also suffered from an addiction but that went hand and hand with his greed — profiting off his sales to Reser. The prosecutor pointed to the expensive tickets Trueblood had to the Trail Blazers game and a nice Portland apartment.
While he may not have intended for Reser to die, he sold the fatal dose, Burkhart said.
Defense lawyer Noel Grefenson argued for a prison term of two years and nine months for Trueblood, arguing that his client is a college graduate with no prior criminal history who sold the pills to support his own opioid addiction.
Trueblood’s mother, Doreen Kriegal, briefly addressed the judge and then Trueblood did.
Kriegal expressed her deep condolences and sorrow to the Reser family.
Kriegal said her family was “very disappointed and saddened” when they learned of her son’s addiction, but “by the grace of God,” he’s been clean and sober for three and a half years. She shared that she thought she failed her son as a mother for not having noticed the signs of his addiction earlier. But she’s proud of the progress he’s made, she said.
When it was Trueblood’s turn to speak, he stood beside his lawyer and turned back and faced the Reser family who filled three rows in the courtroom. Reser’s dad looked straight ahead, avoiding eye contact.
Trueblood said he sold the pills to Alex Reser to support his own habit.
“I know I’m responsible for his death. I hope you know I never meant for any of this to happen,” he said. “To the Reser family, I’m so terribly sorry for all the pain and sorrow I have caused. … I hope that one day you can find it in your hearts to forgive me, but I understand if you can’t. I’m truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. I hope today will give you some closure, and I’m sorry that it’s taken so long.”
Trueblood also apologized to his own family and thanked them for their support.
Mosman called the case one of many that’s come before him due to the fentanyl epidemic, likening it to a “violent storm that runs through our country, through this state” and destroys homes and families. It also pays no regard to anyone’s race or socioeconomic class and“kills young people,” the judge said.
While Trueblood also suffered addiction, he made the “dark and terrible choice” to sell the drug as well, the judge said.
Mosman accepted the prosecutor’s recommended sentence and thanked Reser’s family for coming to court for such a difficult circumstance, saying it helps show the importance of such a case.
“As you are now discovering, it’s a lie when we tell people that something like this will provide closure,” Mosman told them.
“You’ve heard an apology. I hope it was sincere. But you can sort of taste how little it means at this time, to you, on this day,” he added. “And you won’t go to bed tonight feeling like something significant has been made better by a criminal sentencing. There’s nothing I can do, no sentence I can impose today that will take away your pain.”