SAN JOSE — A Santa Clara County judge handed down a sentence of 25 years to life in prison to a San Jose man who fatally poisoned his mother by lacing her oat milk and wine with fentanyl three years ago, a killing preceded by a history of threats and an inheritance dispute.
Bradley Dexter, 43, of San Jose, was sentenced Oct. 21, 2026 after his conviction for fatally poisoning his mother by lacing her oat milk and wine with fentanyl. (San Jose Police Dept.)
Bradley Dexter, 43, was sentenced Wednesday by Superior Court Judge David Cena, following his July no-contest plea to murder in the June 6, 2023 death of 72-year-old Kathleen Dexter.
As part of a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s Office, additional charges of poisoning and elder abuse were dismissed.
“I am glad that the family was spared a trial and I was pleased that the defendant seems to wholeheartedly take responsibility for what happened,” Deputy District Marisa McKeown said in an interview. “Kathleen was an incredibly loving mother who had stood by her son though years of struggles, including drug addiction and crime, and it makes it all the more shocking he would do this to the woman who took such good care of him.”
The conviction and sentence were long in the making: Police say Bradley Dexter belatedly confessed to killing his mother during an interrogation related to his September 2023 arrest for savagely beating his then-76-year-old father with a collapsible baton.
In his reported confession, which was detailed in a probable cause affidavit, he was said to have admitted to putting fentanyl in his his mother’s oat milk and later poisoning her wine with the same narcotic a day before she was found unresponsive in her bed.
According to the San Jose police investigation, in the wake of the death but prior to the confession, the victim’s grandson — who discovered her lifeless body — told detectives that she did not have any major medical issues, but had fallen ill three days before she died, and then vomited as many as 20 times in the intervening time period. Kathleen Dexter’s husband also told police that two weeks before she died, she had exhibited dizziness and vomiting, and was briefly hospitalized.
The death aroused suspicion of foul play after her autopsy concluded that she had died from a fatal dose of fentanyl despite not having a prescription for the highly controlled drug.
Her death was deemed a homicide, touching off a more intensive investigation, which identified Bradley Dexter as a prime suspect based on their interviews with family and friends. Their accounts produced a portrayal of the son feuding with his mother over property he expected to inherit when she died, and suspicions of him stealing her Social Security benefits.
They also told police that prior to the victim’s death, her son had threatened to kill her.
At the sentencing, Bradley Dexter voiced remorse and claimed that he was in the throes of heavy drug addiction a severe mental health crisis when he killed his mother, according to KRON4. McKeown gave credence to that characterization.
“We believe this was a combination of financial motivation and, unfortunately, substance use and mental health,” she said.
Based on the sentence issued Wednesday, after accounting for the three years of jail time he has already served, Bradley Dexter will have to spend at least 18 years in prison before he becomes eligible for parole.