A 31-year-old North Fort Worth man is behind bars after police tied him to a deadly fentanyl overdose that killed a local resident in late May, according to authorities.
Fort Worth police say officers with the department’s fugitive unit arrested Curtis Mukanza today in connection with the death of 26-year-old Cristian Hernandez. Hernandez was found unresponsive on May 28 at a home in the 9200 block of Paluxy Drive, and the Tarrant County Medical Examiner later ruled his death an accident caused by fentanyl toxicity. Mukanza is being held on suspicion of murder and possession of a controlled substance, police said.
Investigators say they developed evidence linking Mukanza to the drugs involved in Hernandez’s death, though officials have not publicly laid out how they built the case, and court records were not immediately available, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Legal context
The case is unfolding under a relatively new Texas law that lets prosecutors treat delivery or manufacture of fentanyl that leads to a death as murder, a shift that has already reshaped overdose investigations across the state. Per the Texas Legislature record on HB 6, the measure, effective Sept. 1, 2023, directs medical examiners to mark fentanyl poisoning on death certificates and increases penalties tied to fentanyl offenses.
Prosecutors in Tarrant County have not hesitated to use the statute in high-profile cases. In June 2025, a jury convicted a man that prosecutors said supplied fentanyl that caused a Fort Worth man’s death, and he received a life sentence, as reported by NBC 5.
What’s next
Fort Worth police say the investigation into Hernandez’s death remains active and that detectives are working with prosecutors as the case moves forward. It is not yet clear when formal charges will be filed or when the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office will act. More details are expected to emerge once court filings and charging decisions become public, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
