MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – A man from White Bear Township has been sentenced to 180 days in the Hennepin County jail and five years of probation after admitting to selling pills containing fentanyl that led to a woman’s fatal overdose. Jesse Russell Lietzau, 26, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in connection with the death of 25-year-old Kailey Caspersen in a Richfield hotel room on May 16, 2021. He was sentenced on Thursday.
According to prosecutors, Lietzau was given probation and up to 240 days in jail in exchange for admitting his guilt. Despite the charges carrying a maximum prison sentence of 25 years, state sentencing guidelines indicated a commitment of just over seven years in Lietzau’s case.
The judge stayed a seven-year prison sentence for five years and ordered Lietzau to be on probation, with no work release permitted while in jail. Furthermore, Lietzau is required to complete a drug treatment program following his release from jail.
However, Nancy Caspersen, the mother of the deceased, expressed her disappointment with the sentence, stating that Lietzau should have been sent to prison for her daughter’s death and for his recovery.
Caspersen’s fiance found her unresponsive and not breathing in a hotel room, where she was later declared dead at the scene. The Hennepin County medical examiner ruled her cause of death as acute fentanyl toxicity.
Nancy Caspersen described her daughter as her only child and spoke of her loving, caring nature. She mentioned that her daughter was a devoted mother to her son and was in the process of bettering her life at the time of her passing.
While it was revealed that Kailey Caspersen had experimented with drugs, her mother emphasized that marijuana was her drug of choice and that she was not a habitual pill user. Finally, it was also mentioned that she had a list of goals, which she was actively working towards, in the days leading up to her passing.