San Jose man charged with fatally poisoning mother with fentanyl amid inheritance dispute
Bradley Dexter reportedly confessed to the poisoning while being interrogated over separate assault of elderly father, court documents allege
SAN JOSE, Calif. — According to authorities and court documents, a man was arrested and charged with fatally poisoning his mother by spiking her drinks with fentanyl during an inheritance dispute that included previous threats against her life.
Bradley Dexter, 40, of San Jose, has been charged with murder, poisoning, and two counts of elder abuse, one of which allegedly involved an assault on his father last week.
Detectives allege in an investigative summary accompanying the criminal charges that Dexter confessed to lacing his mother’s oat milk and wine with the powerful opiate during a police interrogation over that assault report.
Following the death of 72-year-old Kathleen Dexter at her East San Jose home near the city’s east foothills on June 6, an investigation into the poisoning was launched. Her grandson called 911 that afternoon after discovering her unconscious and unresponsive in bed, and he performed CPR, according to police. About 30 minutes later, a responding paramedic pronounced her dead.
According to the police summary, the grandson told San Jose police detectives that Kathleen Dexter did not have any significant medical issues but had recently fallen ill and had “thrown up approximately 20 times” three days before she died.
The victim’s husband told police that she had been experiencing dizziness and vomiting for the past two weeks, and that about two weeks before her death, she was taken to a hospital but was discharged the same day.
On July 18, detectives reported that the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office determined Kathleen Dexter died as a result of a fatal dose of fentanyl for which she had no prescription. The presence of the drug in her body prompted the coroner’s office to rule her death a homicide.
Interviews with Kathleen Dexter’s family and friends were conducted as part of the investigation, and a troubling trend emerged in the form of multiple hints that her son Bradley was a likely suspect. They claimed the victim was involved in a “ongoing dispute with the suspect over inheritance property and stolen social security benefits involving Bradley.”
They also claimed that Bradley Dexter had recently threatened to kill his mother, with one interviewee saying that “if anything were to happen to her, they should look at her son.”
The suspect’s father was treated at a hospital on Sept. 22 for an assault two days earlier, in which he claimed Bradley Dexter hit him a dozen times with a collapsible metal baton, inflicting several injuries including a head contusion and fractures to his arm, knee, and ribcage.
Bradley Dexter was summoned to the San Jose Police Department on Tuesday for an interview about the alleged assault, during which he allegedly confessed and stated “that he was prepared to kill his dad but decided to show him mercy.”
However, detectives wrote that during that same interview, he “also admitted killing his mother.”
“He stated that he first put fentanyl in victim Kathleen’s oat milk,” according to the investigative summary. “He stated that he again poisoned her, putting the fentanyl in her wine when she was on the phone, the evening before she was found deceased in her bed.”
Bradley Dexter was arrested and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail shortly after his reported confession, and as of Thursday, he was being held without bail. He was supposed to be arraigned Thursday afternoon, but the hearing was postponed until Monday after he refused to be transported to court.
The poisoning case was the 28th homicide investigated by San Jose police this year. Anyone with information for investigators should call 408-277-5283 or email Detective Sgt. Ivan Barragan at 4106@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Catherine Van Brande at 4542@sanjoseca.gov. You can also leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers by calling 408-947-7867 or visiting svcrimestoppers.org.
