Photo Credit: Nicolas Völcker / CC by 4.0One of the men charged in connection with the death of Mac Miller has received 17 years in prison as part of a plea deal.
Stephen Andrew Walter will plead guilty for supplying the rapper with the fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills – leading to his death in 2018. Under the terms of the deal, prosecutors will waive Walter’s grand jury indictment, allowing him to plead to a single charge of fentanyl distribution.
“The new charge takes out the death allegation,” Walter’s lawyer confirms. “It’s a binding plea agreement for 17 years [in prison]. The judge will either accept it or reject it. If he accepts it, there will be no power to sentence my client to more. If he rejects it, there is no deal.” Walter is set to appear at a hearing on November 8 if the judge accepts the deal.
“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 provided to the court. Another co-defendant in the case, Cameron James Pettit, has also reached a plea bargain – but that deal is currently sealed.
The third co-defendant, Ryan Michael Reavis, will head to trial on March 1. The new deal says Walter knowingly directed Reavis to deliver the fentanyl-laced pills to Pettit in September 2018. A short time later, those pills were distributed to Mac Miller – legal name Malcolm James McCormick.
Miller was 26-years-old when he died at his home on September 7. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and Coroner ruled a legal mix of cocaine, alcohol, and fentanyl was found in the rapper’s bloodstream at the time of death. Miller was always open about his struggles with addiction in his works. His assistant found him unresponsive and called 911.
“It has become increasingly common for us to see drug dealers peddling counterfeit phramaceuticals made with fentanyl,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in an October 2019 statement when the trio was charged. “These defendants allegedly continued to sell narcotics after Mr. McCormick’s death with full knowledge of the risks their products posed to human life.”
