Federal prosecutors in California have now charged three men in connection with Mac Miller’s death, accusing them of providing the rapper with the drugs that caused his fatal overdose.
Prosecutors in the Central District of California announced Wednesday that 28-year-old Cameron James Pettit, 46-year-old Stephen Andrew Walter, and 36-year-old Ryan Michael Reavis have been charged with distributing of fentanyl resulting in death and conspiring to distribute controlled substances that resulted in death.
The three defendants, who were first arrested last month, allegedly distributed the narcotics to the 26-year-old rapper, born Malcolm James McCormick, two days before his death.
Mac Miller was found dead in his Studio City home on Sept. 7, 2018, and the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office determined his death was caused by a fatal drug overdose involving fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol.
If convicted, the men face a potential life sentence without parole and a minimum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
Court documents show that investigators believe Pettit provided Miller with counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl, which Miller died after snorting. Documents also allege that Pettit supplied Miller with drugs for a period of several months.
“Fentanyl disguised as a genuine pharmaceutical is a killer — which is being proven every day in America,” US Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement last month. “Drugs laced with cheap and potent fentanyl are increasingly common, and we owe it to the victims and their families to aggressively target the drug dealers that cause these overdose deaths.”
Pettit and Walter are set to be arraigned in court on Oct. 10. On Sept. 26, Reavis was taken into federal custody in Arizona, where he relocated earlier this year, on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The US Marshals Service is transporting him from Arizona to Los Angeles.
“Counterfeit pharmaceutical pills are especially dangerous because users are unable to verify what they are ingesting,” Special Agent in Charge William D. Bodner of the DEA’s Los Angeles field division said in a statement. “The tragic death of Mac Miller is a high-profile example of the tragedy that is occurring on the streets of America every day.”
CORRECTION
Mac Miller died on Sept. 7, 2018. An earlier version of this post misstated the date.