No Additional Prison Time After Plea in Marshall County Drug Case
Woman dealt heroin to fatal OD victim
MOUNDSVILLE — A Wheeling woman pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter and received a one-year sentence related to a Marshall County man’s fatal drug overdose.
But according to the terms of the plea agreement reached between Kimberly Sue Evans and Marshall County prosecutors, she will spend no additional time in prison because she’s already set to be behind bars until March 2018 on a previous heroin delivery charge out of Ohio County.
Assistant Prosecutor Herman Lantz said the state, which originally charged Evans with murder, would have had a difficult time proving the heroin Evans delivered to Ryan McGee in May 2014 caused his death.
Lantz said McGee died the day after meeting with Evans and prior to his death was also using cocaine not provided by Evans.
“She was indicted because there was probable cause for the murder charges, but after we reviewed the toxicology reports and spoke to expert witnesses and negotiated with defense counsel we came to the conclusion that involuntary manslaughter was the appropriate disposition,” Lantz said.
“The facts are that we can’t prove he overdosed on the heroin she delivered beyond a reasonable doubt. No one was with him from the time he left her to the time she used it so we don’t know if he got heroin somewhere else.”
Evans, 35, is currently residing at Lakin Correctional Center near Point Pleasant. During Friday’s hearing, Evans disclosed to Marshall County Circuit Court Judge David Hummel that she typically purchased heroin at various spots on Wheeling Island and admitted she was a drug dealer “to some extent.”
“I delivered heroin to Ryan McGee the day before he died,” Evans said. “I was really bad off myself with addiction and so was he. We kind of did a back and forth where he would go for me and I would go for him to get something.”
Hummel sentenced Evans to one year in jail for the charge with no credit for time served, but set the sentence to run concurrently with her existing sentence out of Ohio County.
Lantz said the case should remind the public a person who delivers or sells drugs is a dealer, regardless of their reasons for doing so.
“People mistakenly believe that if they’re just giving it to a friend or dealing for their own use that it doesn’t make them a drug dealer,” Lantz said. “It doesn’t matter why you deliver it — if you deliver it, you’re a drug dealer. If you deliver drugs you can’t control anything beyond that delivery. If that person dies following the delivery, you can be prosecuted not only for the delivery but for the death.”
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