Chris Wivholm was funny. He hoped to own a business one day. He wrote rap songs with impressive speed and ease. He was the “best son” a mother could ask for.
Those were just a few of the ways Elina Wivholm described her son Chris, who died from a drug overdose in March of 2018 when he was 21-years-old.
She spoke a few hours after Aries Andres Velez was sentenced for third-degree murder for selling him what wound up being the lethal dose.
Velez, also 21, got nine years.
Elina Wivholm said Velez apologized during the hearing in Ramsey County District Court, and said he hoped to help others battle addiction when he finishes his time.
If he’s serious, she said she would welcome him to come work for the foundation she started after her son’s death to honor his memory and help fund research aimed at finding a cure substance use disorder.
“My hope for Aries is that he will graduate from high school and get clean and get a trade and hopefully get a second chance at life, which my son will never get,” she said.
Chris Wivholm, an Eden Prairie High School graduate, went to a party on the 1600 block of Westminster Street in St. Paul March 31, 2018, Elina Wivholm said. He wanted to smoke some marijuana, and eventually expressed interest in heroin.
Velez sold him the drugs for $10, and accompanied Wivholm to his car, where Wivholm and another guy got high.
The other guy said he couldn’t feel anything. Wivholm fell asleep.
Police later responded to the scene after receiving a report of a man not breathing in a car. They found Wivholm dead.
The heroin he thought he was buying was fentanyl, Elina Wivholm said, noting that her son’s autopsy showed only that and THC in his system, and no evidence of heroin.
Velez’s attorney, Corey Sherman, could not be reached for comment.
Elina said she hopes her son’s foundation will help break the stigma of addiction, and help others avoid what happened to Chris.
“We don’t want more kids to die,” she said.