Tributes

About Jackson Smith

Jackson was born on November 23, 1993. Jackson was such a beautiful child, with the kindest spirit and sweetest soul, as he always treated others with kindness and respect. Jackson’s hobbies were snowboarding with his father and friends; skateboarding with his friends; computers; and his love of cars where he attended many local car shows as well as car shows in the bay area with friends. Jackson also loved his family with all his heart, always there to help his mother, father, grandmother, and siblings with anything that they needed. Jackson also had a wonderful sense of humor with the greatest laugh!

When Jackson was in high school, he got his first job at California Pizza Kitchen in Fresno as a host, quickly being promoted to busser and then to server. Upon moving to the Los Angeles area to attend school, Jackson was transferred to a California Pizza Kitchen near his home.

Jackson was also a great student and graduated from Central West High School in 2011 and continued his education at Fresno City College, majoring in mathematics. He then moved to the Los Angeles area, where he attended CSU Northridge, majoring in computer science.

In 2015, Jackson’s mother had him move back to Fresno as she became aware that he was struggling with alcohol and pills. In the early morning hours of July 3, 2016, Jackson died from a Fentanyl poisoning, as he had purchased one pill, a counterfeit Oxycodone that was laced with Fentanyl, which tragically ended his life. Jackson was 22 years old at the time of his death.

Jackson is missed by all that had the privilege of knowing him.

About Frank Carl Deprima

Frankie was born on Friday, October 29, 1999, and died on Friday, April 17, 2020, at the age of 20.  Frankie grew up with three older sisters, Jenny, Sammy, and Danielle, who absolutely adored him. When Frankie was little, his sisters would dress him up in girl’s clothes and put makeup on him, always the trooper, going along with it. Frankie even dressed up as Colonel Sanders for the Ellen DeGeneres show. Frankie was a great kid with a beautiful smile and a huge heart. He was the kid that everyone wanted to hang around. He was extremely funny, always making everyone around him laugh. He loved playing pranks on others, especially on his mother and his friends; you never knew what Frankie was going to do.

On April 17, 2020, Frankie made a poor choice and bought what he thought were Xanax pills. Unfortunately, Frankie was unaware the Xanax pills he purchased were counterfeit pressed pills that were laced with Fentanyl.  When Frankie’s toxicology report was released, it revealed he had Fentanyl in his system. His mother, Elaine, had never heard of Fentanyl. The Fresno County Coroner stated that Frankie was dead within 15 minutes of taking the pill, as he had six times the lethal dose of Fentanyl in his system and Narcan would not have saved his life. Frankie was playing Xbox with his friends in the early morning hours of April 17, 2020, and around 3:00 a.m., his friends said he went silent.

The following day, Frankie’s mother searched Frankie’s room and found a plastic bag with nine pills that resembled Xanax bars. When his mom picked up the bag, some of the pills crumbled. The DEA investigator in charge of the investigation took custody of the remaining pills found in Frankie’s room and had them analyzed, where it was determined those remaining pills were not pharmaceutical grade pills, as they contained Unisom, Aspirin, and a very small amount of Xanax, clearly counterfeit “pressed pills,” however, none of those remaining pills found were laced with Fentanyl.  Only the one pill that Frankie took that night contained Fentanyl. Frankie is proof that ONE PILL CAN KILL. Frankie had no idea the pill he took was a counterfeit pressed pill that was laced with Fentanyl made by a drug dealer.

Frankie loved his family, friends, and life so much. Four days before Frankie died, he told his girlfriend, Jenna, the three most important things to him were his girlfriend, his mom, and his Mustang GT.

On April 17, 2020, when Frankie’s mother, Elaine opened Frankie’s bedroom door, it changed her life forever. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t cry, some days are worse than others. Elaine believes the pain of losing a child is the worst pain anyone can ever experience, and never thought in a million years this would happen in her family. No parent should ever find their child dead in their room.

About Ahlijah Quincy-Williams Stidham

Our story is not like most, I did not have the privilege of feeling my son growing in my womb, nor did I get to see his first breath nor experience his first milestones, like most parents, as Ahlijah entered our lives as a foster child, at the age of 8.  Unfortunately, during his first 8 years of life, Ahlijah experienced things that no child should ever experience as he was subjected to hunger, abuse, and not feeling wanted or loved.

My husband and I have raised many kids that were not our biological kids. We have always felt the desire to help so we decided to become foster parents.  When we got the call for our first placement it was for 2 young toddlers, however that wasn’t meant to be because God had other plans for us. Later that day when we got our first call, our placement worker called to say the county had decided to place the toddlers with another family, but they had an 8-year-old that needed placement. He was in dire need because the current foster family had given notice that he was no longer welcome in their home because of his behavior. We were told that if he did not make it at our home, he would then be placed in a group home.

Even though my husband and I wanted a child between 2 and 5 years old, we could not turn down the foster agency’s request, so we agreed to welcome Ahlijah into our home. The Social Worker showed up with a scrawny little boy, with the biggest brown eyes and the most honest smile I could have ever imagined. When we were introduced to Ahlijah, his first statement was, “Hi, can I eat whenever I want, because I am hungry!” My heart melted right there, and I knew he was mine and he needed a lot of love and understanding. My daughter Andrea (his soon to be sister and best friend) took his little hand and drug him to the pantry and they both sat on the floor from what seemed like hours eating snacks and getting to know each other.

The next few years were a lot of stress, hurt and building trust between all of us, as he exhibited behavior in a very angry way, in that he screamed for acceptance and love. With many therapy sessions, doctors’ appointments and so much more to get my son the help he needed to learn that he truly was loved and wanted, every time we would make strides in accomplishing those goals, he would sabotage himself because he never felt he deserved to be loved or he was ever good enough.

By the time my son was 12 we made it official and adopted him and his birth sister who moved in with us 2 years later, however, I always considered Ahlijah as my son, from the first day we met. My son had learned in his first 8 years how to be very sneaky, and deceiving so when he began to use drugs, we did not see it.  We found out later that Ahlijah began his drug use with marijuana. He then progressed to opiates, which he got from his friends. At the time, we did not know the signs of opioid addiction, and we were naïve and never saw his drug addiction coming until it was too late.

He began getting into a lot of trouble, in and out of juvenile hall and by the time he was 16 he had become a habitual run away. We as his parents had lost the battle by this time. No matter what we did it was never enough. Once he turned 18 he moved in with one of his birth brothers and that’s when we officially lost any hope of getting our son back.

One day he called and said he was ready for help, and as his mother, I jumped in once again, got him into rehab only for it to fail again. The next time he reached out for help, I started the tough love and said, “here is the information you, but you will need to call and get the help you need yourself.”  To my surprise, he reached out to various detox and residential treatment centers on his own, many, many times.

He then met a wonderful girl, and she too was doing everything she could to get him clean and sober.

This part of his story is very difficult for me because this is the part where I will never forgive myself. He had only been out of his sober living for a few days when he called for help again but I had just started a new job and said that I wouldn’t get off work until late, but if he hadn’t found a place by the time I got off work. to give me a call.  I told him I loved him, and he told me he loved me too.

I didn’t hear back from him that day, so I sent him a text the next day. He finally responded to say that he had still hadn’t found anywhere to stay and that he had to sleep outside last night. Me being the mom I am, I said something along the lines of, “sucks to have burned so many bridges that now you have none to walk on.” He simply said, “I know mom.” As I was at work, I told him I couldn’t help him now.

On 10/18/2022, my husband received a call from the hospital, stating that Ahlijah was admitted for a drug overdose.

On 10/21/2022 my son was declared brain dead.

On 10/25/2022 my son gave the ultimate gift of organ donation.   Our son Ahlijah was an amazing athlete, he really could have gone pro. He loved with his whole heart but would never allow anyone to get too close to his heart because he was so afraid of someone stepping all over it. There was so much love and compassion and extremely proud moments, but in the end, my son was poisoned by Fentanyl and his murderer was never held accountable.