Stephen Walter has been sentenced to 17 and a half years in federal prison for his involvement in Mac Miller's fentanyl overdose, a judge ruled on Monday. The court rejected his plea deal as being too lenient and cited his continued sale of drugs until his arrest in 2019.
“The court has elected not to accept that plea agreement. So, sir, if you want, at this point, you can withdraw your guilty plea and go to trial,” Otis D. Wright, II said in his ruling. “I may as well lay it out, okay. When you continue to engage in this activity even after your activities killed someone, I’m having a tough time not staying within the guidelines.”
Walter agreed to a higher sentence and was given a chance to address the court. He explained that he was unaware the drugs would be given to Miller, stating that he only intended them for Cameron Pettit, another deal facing criminal charges for the rapper's death.
“I dealt with Cameron Pettit, and he led me to believe that he was going to ingest the pills that I sold him. He never told me anything about McCormick. He didn’t tell me he was going to deliver those pills to another person,” Walter said.
“I’m still taking responsibility for everything that happened, but he never told me it was for another person,” Walter continued. “He was experienced is using those pills. I thought it was for him — for personal use. And then he delivered them to McCormick with cocaine and Xanax, or whatever. I was not willing to do that and had no intent to do anything else other than [sell to] Cameron Pettit. And then two days later, when there was an overdose, Cameron never called me and told me about it, that he had anything to do with him. So I had no idea that somebody had passed. If I would have known, I would not have continued that type of behavior.”
Walter is now the second dealer to receive a sentence of over 10 years in connection with Mac Miller's death. Ryan Reavis received over 10 years in prison, last month, for his own involvement.
Miller died on Sept. 7, 2018, at his home in Los Angeles after consuming a lethal mix of fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol.
Walter will additionally serve five years of supervised release.
[Via]