Man charged with murder in fentanyl death of Stanislaus County woman faces trial

A second-degree murder case is moving forward in the death of Bethany Borges of Ceres, who died from the effects of fentanyl last August, authorities said.

George Foster Keene III was bound over for trial following a preliminary hearing in March in Stanislaus Superior Court. He has a pretrial court date Monday.

Keene, 28, is charged with furnishing a highly lethal controlled substance, fentanyl, for sale to Borges, resulting in her death Aug. 17. The defendant allegedly brought the drugs to a home in Ceres where Borges suffered a fatal overdose.

Parties in the case stipulated that Keene himself overdosed on fentanyl and was found unconscious at 5:20 that morning in the 3000 block of Mitchell Road.

According to court records, an ambulance responded to the Mitchell Road location on a 911 call and Keene was revived with a single dose of Narcan. He was taken to Memorial Medical Center and later released.

Keene was arrested and booked in jail Sept. 15 after a joint investigation into Borges’ death by Ceres police and District Attorney investigators. He remains in custody with bail set at $2 million.

Borges worked as a waitress at Harvest Moon in Modesto and her death was one of 138 fatal overdoses due to fentanyl in Stanislaus County last year.

In announcing the charges in September, District Attorney Jeff Laugero said the homicide investigation was representative of a continuing and combined effort to combat the fentanyl epidemic.

Fentanyl deaths are not classified as murder in California law, but district attorneys in some counties have brought homicide charges based on evidence the dealers were aware that the drugs they sold could be fatal.

Authorities in Riverside County in August 2023 claimed a first-ever conviction in California of a man found guilty of second-degree murder for providing fentanyl to a 26-year-old woman who died after taking half a pill.