A drug dealer who supplied late musician Mac Miller with fentanyl-laced pills has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for the contribution to the rapper's death.
Stephen Andrew Walter from California pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of fentanyl in November 2021.
According to a sentencing memorandum obtained by KTLA, the illegal offense usually carries a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence, but under a plea agreement, the 48-year-old will instead serve a 17-and-a-half-year term.
Officials claim Walter was aware the pills contained fentanyl or some other federally controlled substance when he authorized distribution.
Rapper Mac was 26 years old when he passed away from an accidental overdose of the powerful opioid fentanyl in 2018.
The star whose real name is Malcolm James McCormick also had cocaine and alcohol in his system at the time of his death.
As well as Walter, two other people have been charged in connection with the rapper's death.
In April, Ryan Michael Reavis, 39, was sentenced to 11 years in prison after he also pleaded guilty to fentanyl distribution.
Reavis was also aware of the counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl which he supplied to co-defendant Cameron James Pettit, 30. However, the case against Petit is still pending.
Last year November prosecutors said: "Walter pleading guilty here means he was fully aware of what he was pawning off that night – counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl."
Walter initially agreed to a flat 17-year sentence under a deal with federal prosecutors which was struck last October.
But due to the fact that the bargain was below federal guidelines, and because prosecutors previously claimed Walter continued to sell cocaine and the dangerous pills known as "blues" leading up to his 2019 arrest, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright, II, said he couldn’t accept it.
Judge Wright explained: "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.
"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."
According to the indictment that was released both Reavis and Walter have criminal records involving drugs.
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