A former Long Beach city employee who allegedly told police he supplied drugs to a woman he was dating pleaded not guilty Thursday to a murder charge stemming from her July 2020 death.
Jarid Nakamura, 35, was arrested on March 6 on suspicion of murder in the death of 36-year-old Sokly Sar.
Nakamura went to the Long Beach Police Department’s headquarters that day, asked to speak with homicide detectives, and told them that he gave Sar narcotics and was responsible for her death, according to a statement released last week by the department.
Police said there was limited evidence to believe that a crime occurred when officers were sent on July 6, 2020, to the 1700 block of Cedar Avenue to assist the Long Beach Fire Department.
Police noted that the coroner’s office had ruled the woman’s death as an “accidental overdose of methamphetamine and alcohol.”
Nakamura was employed by the city’s Harbor Department at the time of the woman’s death.
He has remained behind bars on $2 million bail since his arrest.
UPDATE: Former city employee arrested, charged for death of woman who overdosed in 2020, police say