Norwalk man responsible for 3 heroin overdoses is sent to prison

A Norwalk man responsible for three heroin overdoses involving three victims is headed to prison.
Stephan N. Wallace, 24, declined to speak before he was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday. He pleaded guilty during the same Huron County Common Pleas Court hearing to two counts of corrupting another with drugs.

Wallace will serve a total of two years for the two second-degree felonies, plus another year for violating his parole. He had been on post-release control for an Erie County conviction when he committed the local crimes.

His sentence was a joint recommendation from Huron County Prosecutor Daivia Kasper and public defender David Longo. Wallace also forfeited $868 seized by the Norwalk Police Department, a member of the 10-county METRICH drug task force.

As part of Tuesday’s plea deal, prosecutors dismissed a third count of corrupting another with drugs and one charge of trafficking in heroin.

Kasper said three people were hospitalized as the result of three heroin overdoses. She added that Wallace was about to shoot up with “contaminated heroin” just as police used their search warrant and the heroin he was using tested with a low concentration of fentanyl — the same combination used by the OD victims. The overdoses happened between June 28 and 30.

“He might have killed himself if they hadn’t invaded his home,” Longo said.

Originally published in the Norwalk Reflector on September 22, 2016.