FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — There was a major moment in court on Tuesday, nearly five years after Olivia Patla’s death.

“How do you plead, sir?” Fresno County Superior Court Judge Raj Singh Badhesha asked.

“No contest,” Lakota Wakley said. He pleaded that way to all three charges against him, taking full responsibility for selling and possessing fentanyl.

“It’s time that he pleaded guilty because he was guilty,” Rene Patla, the victim’s mother, said.

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Olivia was 18 and one day shy of her high school graduation when she died from a fentanyl overdose in 2021.

Prosecutors say Wakley sold the dose. He will now serve up to five years in state prison.

“He may only get five years, and look at how fast that went for us,” Patla said.

The heartbroken mother wanted longer.

Wakley is a repeat offender who sold again after Olivia’s death, and is now also serving a federal prison sentence for that crime.

“Sometimes you have to just take what you’ve been given and move forward with it,” Patla said. “A sad reality of this situation in our justice system.”

For years, local law enforcement has fought fentanyl, finally putting Fresno County overdose deaths on the decline.

It comes after the region’s first fentanyl murder case last year. A jury agreed that knowingly selling a deadly dose of fentanyl is murder.

On Tuesday, the judge put Wakley on notice, saying if he sells again and somebody dies, he could be charged with murder.

“Do you understand, sir?” the judge asked.

“Yes, sir,” Wakley said.

“I don’t think he’s going to take it (to) heart,” Patla said. “He didn’t take it [to] heart the first time. He’s not going to take it (to) heart again.”

A photo of Olivia’s face was on her mother’s shirt today. Patla wanted Wakley to see what he took.

“We don’t know if she would be married,” Patla said about her daughter. “We don’t know if she would have children. We don’t know if she would have graduated from junior college or trade school. We have no idea where she would have been at this point.

Wakley’s sentencing is set for April 17.

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