PRISON TIME

Drug Dealer Gets 17.5 Years in Mac Miller’s Overdose Death

The judge said that Stephen Walter’s original plea deal was too lenient.

Stephen Walter, a drug dealer convicted in the overdose death of rapper Mac Miller, was sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison on Monday. Walter pleaded guilty to one charge of fentanyl distribution as part of a deal last October, under which he was to serve just 17 years behind bars. The judge, however, rejected that agreement on Monday as “too lenient after [Walter] continued to sell counterfeit oxycodone pills” after Miller’s death in 2018, according to Rolling Stone. “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,” the judge said. After briefly speaking with his lawyer, Walter agreed to the 17.5-year sentence. The judge said that the higher sentencing was unrelated to Miller’s “celebrity,” describing the rapper as “a human being who unwittingly took something that will flat out kill you.”