A San Jose man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday for fatally poisoning his mother with fentanyl, closing out a case that stretched back more than three years to the discovery of her body inside the family's home on Utopia Place. Bradley Dexter, 43, apologized in court before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena handed down the sentence, telling the room he regrets his actions every day.
Dexter pleaded guilty to first-degree murder rather than stand trial, according to KRON4, which reported that he admitted, per court documents, to poisoning his mother Kathleen Dexter's oat milk and wine with a deadly amount of fentanyl. Kathleen, 73, was found deceased inside her bedroom on June 6, 2023. San Jose detectives classified her death a homicide, and fentanyl was determined to be the cause.
A Pattern of Poisoning Weeks Before Her Death
The station reported that Dexter put fentanyl in his mother's oat milk on the day of his son's high school graduation ceremony, two weeks before her murder — a first attempt she survived. He poisoned her again, this time in her wine, according to the same police report cited by the station, and this second dose proved fatal. Court records show Dexter had been living with his son and parents at the Utopia Place house at the time.
San Jose police detectives suspected, per a police report, that an inheritance dispute was the motive — Dexter and his mother had been at odds over money and properties, and a family member told the station that Dexter believed he deserved a larger share of the inheritance after his grandparent died in 2018. But the account offered in court differed: Dexter asserted at sentencing that he killed his mother during a mental health crisis involving severe psychosis, describing his own crime as disturbing. A different motive was also floated elsewhere — Pamela Endsley said Dexter claimed his motive was religious, believing his mother was a sinner.
Family Describes a Mother Who Feared Her Son
Kathleen Dexter's loved ones told the station that Bradley had made death threats against his mother multiple times and was addicted to drugs, though they said Kathleen did not use drugs at the time of her death. She was remembered as a loving and devoted mother and grandmother who had worked as a flight attendant before retirement and, according to Endsley, dedicated herself to raising her grandson. A friend of Kathleen's told the outlet that she always wanted to give Brad another chance.
In court, Dexter said he's very sorry for what happened and that not a day goes by that he doesn't regret his actions. “I love my mom,” he said. “If I could give up my own life to bring her back, I would. I'm not the person I was.” He told the court he spent the past three years in jail addressing personal issues and getting clean from drugs.
Judge Credits Time Served, Orders Prison Report
Judge Cena said Dexter's statements demonstrated that he accepted responsibility and showed remorse. The prosecutor thanked Dexter for pleading guilty and sparing his family a murder trial. Cena credited Dexter with 1,123 days of time already served in jail and ordered him to report to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Under California Penal Code Section 189, any murder carried out by poison is automatically classified as first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory state prison term of 25 years to life. The linked PDF is the 1993 third edition of California Criminal Law by Cliff Roberson, published by Copperhouse Publishing Company. That statutory framework helps explain the 25-years-to-life sentence.
The Investigation and a Related Assault
Kathleen Dexter's death was cataloged by the San Jose Police Department as the city's 28th homicide of 2023, following an arrest that same September on suspicion of homicide, poisoning, and elder abuse, alongside a separate warrant tied to a violent attack on Dexter's father. That attack, in which Dexter struck his father with a metal baton, left the elder Dexter hospitalized with serious injuries; he publicly attributed the assault to drug abuse and inheritance disputes, according to WFTV.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office classified Kathleen Dexter's death as a homicide on July 18, 2023 — six weeks after her body was found. Homicide detectives developed probable cause to believe it was intentional fentanyl poisoning.
