A Los Angeles drug dealer pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl-laced pills that led to the overdose death of rapper Mac Miller in 2018. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
License Photo
Oct. 27 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles man has pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl-laced pills that led to the 2018 overdose death of rapper Mac Miller.
Stephen Andrew Walter, 48, told a runner on Sept. 4, 2018, to distribute counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, according to the plea agreement filed on Monday. The runner then gave the pills to Miller's drug dealer who provided them to Miller three days before he died of what a coroner described as a "mixed drug toxicity" of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.
The plea agreement states Walter was aware the pills "contained fentanyl or some other federally controlled substance," and knew they would be given to the dealer.
It also said Miller "would not have died from an overdose but for the fentanyl contained in the pills."
Walter is expected to formally plead guilty to one count of fentanyl distribution on Nov. 8 and be sentenced at a later date.
Under the plea agreement, he would serve 17 years in prison after prosecutors agreed his sentence should be calculated based on a more serious offense -- distribution of fentanyl resulting in death -- than on the single count of fentanyl distribution.
"Everybody agreed, after going through all the evidence, that this was a fair and reasonable disposition," Walter's lawyer, William Harris, said Wednesday.
Walter was one of three people indicted in Miller's death along with the runner and Miller's dealer. The two other defendants, Cameron James Pettit and Ryan Michael Reavis, are set to go to trial in March.
Miller, born Malcom James McCormick, had released his fifth studio album before his death and had publicly discussed his struggles with drug use.
He was posthumously nominated for a Grammy for his 2018 album Swimming.
