Quad Cities Dispatch/Argus recently issued the following announcement.
A Bettendorf man was given a deferred judgement and placed on three years of probation in the 2018 heroin overdose death of a 23-year-old Davenport man.
Michael Randy Spencer, 38, also was ordered to complete a substance abuse evaluation and abide by all treatment and abstain from the use of drugs and alcohol as part of the terms of his probation, according to a sentencing order filed July 25.
If he successfully completes his probation, the conviction will not be entered on his record.
Spencer pleaded guilty in May to delivery of heroin, a Class C felony, in Scott County District Court. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dismissed an additional charge of conspiracy to deliver heroin at sentencing.
At his plea hearing, Spencer admitted that he placed a syringe filled with heroin into a vein in the hand of Tyler Ekstrand on April 7, 2018.
Ekstrand pushed down the plunger on the syringe before he overdosed and died in Spencer’s apartment, he said.
His brother and co-defendant, Gregory Jason Spencer, 41, pleaded guilty in April to delivery of heroin as a habitual offender and was sentenced in June to up to 15 years in prison. He must serve three years of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.
Police say Gregory Spencer drew up syringes of purported heroin he had obtained using money provided by Ekstrand. He then provided a syringe containing heroin to both Ekstrand and Michael Spencer.
Original source can be found here.
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