One of the men who supplied the counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that led to Mac Miller's death was sentenced Monday to more than 17 years in prison, authorities said.
Stephen Andrew Walter was one of three men charged in the rapper's death in the Studio City section of Los Angeles in 2018. He pleaded guilty last year to one count of distribution of fentanyl, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Walter, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, directed co-defendant Ryan Michael Reavis to give the pills to co-defendant Cameron James Pettit, who then sold them to Miller.
Miller, whose legal name was Malcolm James McCormick, died from “mixed drug toxicity” that included cocaine, fentanyl and alcohol, the Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner’s office has said.
Walter admitted in a plea agreement that Miller “would not have died but for the fentanyl contained in the pills that” the artist “received from Pettit and that Pettit received from Reavis,” at Walter’s direction, according to sentencing documents.
Prosecutors said Walter continued selling dangerous drugs after Millers death.
Reavis was sentenced last month to nearly 11 years in prison for supplying Pettit with the drugs. His attorney has described him as a “runner” who delivered pills containing oxycodone but did not know they contained fentanyl.
Pettit's case is pending. He pleaded not guilty.
When he died, Miller had recently released his fifth album, “Swimming,” and a tour was scheduled to kick off in October of that year.
He was nominated for his first Grammy in December 2018, three months after he died, for best rap album for “Swimming.” A sixth album, “Circles,” was released posthumously.
