One of the three men charged in connection with Mac Miller’s fatal overdose has agreed to plead guilty and accept a 17-year prison sentence for supplying the fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills sold to the rising rapper shortly before his 2018 death.
Under the terms of the deal, prosecutors are waiving Stephen Andrew Walter’s grand jury indictment and allowing him to plead to a single new charge of fentanyl distribution. He previously was indicted on more serious charges including fentanyl distribution resulting in death and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance resulting in death.
“The new charge takes out the death allegation,” Walter’s lawyer William S. Harris tells Rolling Stone. “It’s a binding plea agreement for 17 years [in prison]. The judge will either accept or reject it. If he accepts it, there will be no power to sentence my client to more. If he rejects it, there’s no deal.”
Walter, 48, is set to appear at a hearing Nov. 8 to change his plea if the proposed deal is accepted.
“I am pleading guilty because I am guilty of the charge and wish to take advantage of the promises set forth in this agreement,” Walter said in a written statement attached to the agreement filed in federal court in Los Angeles.
One of his co-defendants in the case, Cameron James Pettit, also reached a plea agreement that has been sealed, a source tells Rolling Stone. The third co-defendant, Ryan Michael Reavis, is heading to a trial set for March 1.
According to his new deal, Walter agrees he “knowingly” directed Reavis to deliver fentanyl in the form of counterfeit oxycodone pills to Pettit on Sept. 4, 2018. A short time later, Pettit distributed the pills to Miller, the paperwork states.
Miller, whose legal name was Malcolm James McCormick, was 26 years old when he died at his home in Los Angeles on Sept. 7, 2018, from a lethal cocktail of fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and Coroner ruled.
The rapper, who was open about his struggles with addiction, was last seen alive by his assistant around 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2018. It was the assistant who found him unresponsive the next morning when he went to check on him.
According to the indictment, Pettit had agreed on Sept. 4 to supply McCormick with 10 oxycodone pills called “blues” as well as cocaine and the sedative Xanax. When he made the delivery on Sept. 5, Pettit allegedly gave McCormick the counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl instead.
Investigators previously said they believe McCormick died after snorting the counterfeit pills.
From Rolling Stone US
