A Charleston man who originally faced a murder charge in the overdose death of a woman last year, but pleaded guilty to much lesser charges, still committed serious crimes, a judge told him Monday.
Steven Craig Coleman, 28, was sentenced to spend a year in jail - the maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor. He admitted at a plea hearing in April to providing the dose of heroin that killed Melody Ann Oxley.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey also ordered Coleman to spend between one and three years in prison for attempting to deliver a controlled substance, a felony.
"Whether a misdemeanor or felony, it's the death of someone," Bailey said about the involuntary manslaughter charge.
She said the sentences should run consecutively, one after the other.
Coleman will get credit for the time he's already spent in jail - more than a year, Bailey said.
Coleman had asked the judge to place him in a drug rehabilitation center, rather than sending him back to jail.
"I'm asking not for mercy but for help," Coleman said.
But Bailey said he should use the time incarcerated to get an education and figure out something to do with his life, besides use and abuse drugs.
"The only occupation you have engaged in is drug dealing, and there is no greater problem this community faces than the proliferation of drugs. And what do we have as a result of the proliferation of drugs? Death," the judge said.
Coleman read a lengthy letter, in which he apologized for his role in the death of Oxley, 43. Her three daughters sat quiet in the courtroom Monday.
Coleman explained that his own mother had died from a drug overdose. He was the one who found her dead.
"The truth is, I'm not a violent person, I never have been," he said. "I'm an addict. My mother was an addict, my father is an addict, my brother and uncle are addicts."
On Feb. 14, 2015, Oxley went to the house that Coleman and his father, Steve Slater, shared on Charleston's West Side. Police say Coleman gave Slater and Oxley heroin after they begged for it.
Oxley's body was found in a back bedroom of the 7th Street house. Coleman called 911 and then went to the house next door.
"I will confirm the fact that you have what I would consider to be a very tragic life," Bailey said to Coleman. She noted how drug addiction has touched, from an early age, nearly everyone in Coleman's life. "The bottom line is, you as an adult, at 28 years old, as you stand before the court, have to take responsibility for your own conduct.
"You were engaged in an activity that wasn't just supplying drugs that night. You had large amounts of drugs that night, scales, cash."
On multiple occasions, paramedics have gone to the house Coleman shared with his father to administer Naloxone, the drug meant to reverse the effects of an overdose, the judge said.
First assistant Kanawha prosecutor Don Morris said Monday that prosecutors agreed to allow Coleman to plead guilty to the lesser charges because a witness in the case had died while Coleman was awaiting trial.
The case would have been difficult to prosecute also because of the involvement of Coleman's family, Morris said.
Charleston lawyer, Rico Moore, who represented Coleman, had argued that the charge against Coleman would deter drug users from calling 911 in the event of an overdose.
Under state law, first-degree murder can include "murder ... by a felony offense of manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance." Kanawha prosecutors haven't used that provision much, but Kanawha Prosecuting Attorney Charles Miller previously said his office wanted to send a message to drug dealers.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or @KateLWhite on Twitter.