The man accused of supplying the fentanyl-laced pills linked to rapper Mac Miller’s fatal 2018 overdose pleaded guilty Monday to one distribution charge and now faces as many as 20 years in prison.
According to CBS News, Stephen Andrew Walter entered into a plea deal with federal investigators on the sole felony count of distribution of fentanyl.
TMZ, which first reported the deal, confirmed that a conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance charge against Walter was dropped as part of the plea.
According to the plea agreement, Walter instructed a runner on Sept. 4, 2018, to distribute counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. That runner gave the pills to Miller’s suspected drug dealer, who provided them to the rapper, TMZ reported.
Miller died three days later of what a coroner characterized as the “mixed drug toxicity” of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol, CBS News reported.
More specifically, Walter’s plea agreement stated that he knowingly distributed pills that “contained fentanyl or some other federally controlled substance” and that Miller “would not have died from an overdose but for the fentanyl contained in the pills,” the network reported.
Prosecutors recommended Walter serve a 17-year prison sentence plus five years of supervised release, but he could ultimately receive a maximum 20-year prison sentence plus a $1 million fine and supervised release for life, TMZ reported.
Born Malcolm James McCormick, Miller signed with Warner Records in 2014, after dropping two chart-topping albums that solidified his star power on the indie rap scene. The rapper-producer spoke openly about his sobriety struggles, and released his fifth studio album just before his death, CBS News reported.
Miller was posthumously nominated for his first Grammy in 2018 for “Swimming,” his final album, the network reported.