FOND DU LAC (WLUK) -- A Fond du Lac man was sentenced Tuesday for supplying the drugs that led to his sister's overdose death.
Judge Tricia Walker ruled Christopher Hoerth, 39, will serve six years in prison and six years of extended supervision. The state had recommended 10-12 years of initial confinement and 7-10 years of extended supervision.
After a five-day trial in April, a jury convicted Hoerth of first-degree reckless homicide and felony bail jumping. He pleaded no contest Tuesday to possession of narcotic drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia in a separate case.
Prosecutors say in May 2020, Hoerth traveled to Milwaukee to buy what he thought was heroin, then gave it to his sister in North Fond du Lac. According to the criminal complaint, his sister completed a methadone clinic treatment in 2018, but relapsed with her brother's delivery of fentanyl to her.
The medical examiner ruled her manner of death to be fentanyl toxicity, with 30 ng/mL of fentanyl found in her blood at the time of the autopsy.
"No parent should have to bury their child but fentanyl continues to kill, with families and communities devastated from the deadly impact of fentanyl," Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said in a news release. "We will continue to fight for justice for those families in the hopes we can deter others from feeling the deadly impact of fentanyl."