BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Thousands of text messages have been released in a lawsuit involving a student who overdosed on fentanyl in a Stanford fraternity house.
The messages show Eitan Weiner, 19, of Los Altos, enjoyed drugs of all kinds — by himself and with friends, in his bedroom and at festivals, and especially paired with rap music and marijuana.
The text messages were filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court on March 7 by attorneys for Weiner’s childhood friend Matthew Ming Carpenter, who ordered Weiner the counterfeit pills that eventually killed him.
Weiner’s parents are suing Stanford, saying the school failed to pass on public health warnings about counterfeit pills and allowed a culture of drug use to persist, especially among fraternities.
They’re also suing Weiner’s fraternity, TDX, Carpenter and Weiner’s roommates in December 2021.
The roommates and Carpenter have asked a judge to dismiss the case. A hearing is scheduled on May 8.
The text messages submitted to the court by Carpenter’s attorneys show that Weiner’s friends and girlfriend warned Weiner to be careful — “don’t act immortal,” one friend said — but Weiner said he knew what he was doing. “I wanna be like the great rock bands of the 70s … Banging guitar solos and crippling opiate addiction,” Weiner joked in a text message to a friend.
Weiner said he had “three untouchables” — heroin, crack and meth.
“Cuz I’m sure heroin is fun … but such a slippery slope,” Weiner said in another message in July 2019.
That summer, Weiner went to a music festival at Shoreline Amphitheater to see his favorite rapper, JuiceWRLD, and did cocaine and ecstasy, he told a friend.
He mixed drugs
Weiner, who graduated from Los Altos High School in 2018, also said he did acid and molly at the same time in his freshman dorm.
“And all my friends were off oxy we dubbed it ‘hard drugs night,’” Weiner said in a text.
Weiner’s friend asked, what was the point of doing hard drugs in a dorm?
“I did coke at a house party and jus sat and talked w my friends for two hours … If ur w the right ppl u can jus chill and experience the headspace together,” Weiner replied.
Weiner said marijuana helped him focus.
“Weed has synergy w almost every drug,” he said in a text.
Lived in the ‘iconic stoner room’
Weiner and his friends were excited to live in “the iconic stoner room on campus” their sophomore year.
“I find that so crazy. Like that is THE stoner room,” Weiner said in a text on July 26, 2019.
“The waviest room at Stanford,” his friend replied.
Weiner lived in the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house at 675 Lomita Drive with three roommates. They bought two pounds of marijuana for $2,200 in November 2019 to sell on campus, text messages show.
Was considering a gap year
Weiner’s girlfriend asked Weiner if he was safe driving to visit friends in the middle of the night while he was high.
“Oh ya babe I’ve driven high more than not,” Weiner said.
“Okay weed is god,” she replied.
“Looool I’m jus saying it doesn’t affect driving,” Weiner said.
Weiner said he was looking into a gap year because he was doing poorly in classes and didn’t want to waste his parent’s money.
“Bro my parents have literally put their entire life savings bc we can’t get financial aid even tho tuition pretty much gonna make us go broke (paying for my sisters tuition too) and it’s not fair to them for me to stay here and not progress at all,” Weiner texted a friend.
Saw himself as a musician
Weiner wanted to make rap music and believed he could be great. He said he felt like rap music is a “product of the universal adolescent experience,” with the exception of gang life and growing up poor. “Sex drugs, and money tho is universal,” he said in a text.
Weiner told friends that he would take psychedelic drugs and write verses.
“Like I’m telling u bro I have entire drawn out songs in my head I jus need an engineer,” he texted a friend.
Narcan suggested
One of Weiner’s friends told him to get Narcan to prevent a fentanyl overdose.
Weiner replied that he probably should to be safe, but he said he’s taken six or seven pills and felt the same every time.
Weiner told the friend that buying drugs on the dark web was the safest way. He said he only bought from sellers with positive reviews.
“I know that sounds crazy,” Weiner said. “But drugs off the street are way more (suspicious) than dark web.”
“It does sound crazy,” the friend replied.
Another friend warned Weiner about doing oxycodone. Weiner said he crushed pills and only took a quarter at a time “so it’s hella easy to not overdose.”
Weiner said he took oxycodone for a dinner with his family.
“I was hella funny and sociable,” he said in a text.
Drugs shipped in the mail
In January 2020, Weiner asked Carpenter to order him Percocet pills online. Carpenter, also a Los Altos High School graduate, was going to college in St. Louis but had the package shipped to Weiner’s fraternity house.
Weiner had a medical emergency on Jan. 15, 2020.
His girlfriend told police that Weiner couldn’t lift his arms to hang his clothes in his closet. His pupils were small, his lips were pale and his voice was deep, she said.
The girlfriend called for Weiner’s roommates, and the fraternity’s resident advisor Timothy Michael called an ambulance, police said.
Paramedics couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Weiner. He told them he was fine, and he passed a walking test down the stairs, police said.
The next day, Weiner went to a party with his roommate Cole Dill-Desa for about an hour in the evening, Dill-Desa told police.
They came back to their room around 8 p.m. and played some video games, and then Weiner said he was going to the studio where he raps, Dill-Desa said.
A janitor found Weiner dead in a bathroom the next morning, with a crushed-up blue pill and a rolled-up dollar bill by his side.
Carpenter emailed Weiner’s mother two days later to say that he was devastated and send his best to the family.
Carpenter said Weiner had been there for him and their friend group since kindergarten.
“I’ve admired his brilliance and incredible ability to navigate and understand people my entire life, and looked at him as a role model for how I should live,” Carpenter said in his email, court records show.
Police looked into Weiner’s Venmo transactions and were led to Carpenter, who admitted to ordering the pills in December 2020.
“That could have been me … Maybe that should have been me,” Carpenter told Sgt. Joseph Piazza.
Stanford disbanded TDX in March 2021.
Carpenter was charged in October 2021. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May 2022 to two years of probation and 300 hours of community service.
Parents suing several parties
Weiner’s parents are suing Stanford, TDX, Carpenter and Weiner’s roommates in December 2021.
Weiner’s parents allege Stanford failed to pass on public health warnings about counterfeit pills and allowed a culture of drug use to persist, especially among fraternities.
Stanford’s attorneys have blamed the parents, Amir and Julie Weiner, both Stanford employees, for not addressing their son’s “risky behaviors.”
Amir Weiner is an associate history professor at Stanford, and Julie Weiner is an associate vice president for medical center development.
The roommates and Carpenter have filed motions for a judge to dismiss the case. A hearing is scheduled on May 8.
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