BELLAIRE — A Petoskey man will spend at least four years in prison after he admitted he provided a woman with a powerful prescription painkiller that led to her fatal overdose.
Judge Thomas G. Power, of 13th Circuit Court, this week sentenced James Jeffery Lauer, 49, to four to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty last month to a count of delivery of a controlled substance, namely Fentanyl. Prosecutors dismissed Lauer's second-degree murder and delivery of a controlled substance causing death charges, as part of a plea deal.
Lauer last September traded Amanda Brookz Harding, 27, of Kalkaska, his Fentanyl patch for two packs of heroin outside a Mancelona grocery store, court records show. Harding overdosed on the prescription painkiller after the exchange.
