San Antonio drug dealer sentenced to 30 years in prison for fatal fentanyl distribution

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — A San Antonio man will spend 360 months in prison after he was sentenced in federal court for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl resulting in the death of 20-year-old Isabella Render.

The U. S. Department of Justice says in a release Patrick James Hall, 29, will also serve 10 years of supervised release.

According to court documents, Hall met Render on Oct. 28, 2020, in a San Antonio hotel room located off I-10, where he had been selling the drug in the form of small round blue pills disguised as oxycodone.  Render had been unconscious in Hall’s hotel room for an extended period when Hall returned a missed call to Render’s friend.  Hall notified the friend that she needed to pick up Render from the hotel because she had overdosed.  He then left the location without calling for emergency services.  Render’s friend, however, did alert emergency services who pronounced Render dead upon their arrival.  She had been deceased for some time.  A toxicology report showed that Render had an amount of fentanyl in her blood that exceeded 24 times a fatal dose.

Hall was arrested on Nov. 19, 2020 on State charges.  Text messages sent from his phone confirmed that he had been selling the pills to multiple individuals at the time of Render’s death, and that he himself had overdosed on the pills earlier in the month.  Hall was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts related to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.

“Fentanyl has proven to be a very deadly drug that is being used to poison our communities and this sentence reinforces our position that those who traffic it will be held accountable for the harm they cause,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas.  “My hope is that families of fentanyl victims—in this case, Isabella’s family—can see these sentences as progress and that they can find some measure of relief through our justice system.  I also thank our law enforcement partners at the Drug Enforcement Administration and the San Antonio Police Department for their successful investigative work in this case.”

The DEA and SAPD investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Hail prosecuted the case.