Loved ones are remembering a young Southern California father who died from fentanyl as the suspect who sold him the drugs was sentenced to prison.

On November 11, 2022, Ian Pangburn, 26, purchased fentanyl from Javier Carlos Cruz, 23, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Pangurn ingested a fentanyl pill and died the next day. A toxicologist determined that fentanyl poisoning had caused his death. 

Pangburn’s mother, Jennifer Ochoa, said her son had previously struggled with drug use but was working to turn his life around when he died.

“He was a happy person at times and he struggled,” Ochoa said. “I won’t downplay it. There’s a stigma about drug users that they take a drug and it’s their fault and they deserve to die, but it’s not [true]. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t ask to die. Unfortunately, he made a choice and the consequences of his choice ended up being death.”

Pangburn, who leaves behind a 4-year-old daughter, had graduated from Alta Loma High School where he played football and was attending classes at Mt. San Antonio College as he worked on improving his future.

He had been messaging Cruz, the man who sold him the deadly narcotics, for a while before he took that fatal dose.

Cruz was arrested on December 27, 2022. While searching his home, Ontario Police discovered nearly 1,500 counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, along with three semiautomatic handguns.

Ochoa is speaking out following her son’s death, warning others about the extreme dangers of fentanyl and drug trafficking.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially fatal dose and lab testing indicates that seven out of 10 pills seized from suspects contain a lethal dose.

“Fentanyl, even one pill, it just depends on the potency because they don’t have any way to regulate it because it’s illegal so one pill could have enough fentanyl in it to kill a dozen people,” said Byron Pangburn, the victim’s father. “And that’s one pill. So it varies because there’s no quality control on something that’s made illegally or by cartels.”

Pangburn’s sister, Cecilia Ochoa, said she knows firsthand how painful the consequences of drug use can be.

“A lesson I learned from this is just how precious life truly is,” she said. “Because we all only have one life, when a moment is gone, you can’t get it back. It’s gone forever.”

Ashley Nusser, Pangborn’s partner and mother of his daughter, is devastated and trying to help the young child understand her father’s death. 

“She knows her dad was taken by a very bad man,” Nusser said. “She knows he’s buried in the ground, but we have said that he will always be in your heart.”

On June 28, 2024, Cruz entered a plea deal and was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison and three years of supervised release for the distribution of fentanyl. Cruz also admitted that his products resulted in the death of Pangburn, officials said.

Pangburn, who is an Ontario resident, is survived by his daughter, siblings, parents and friends.