Dealer Gets Life After Heroin Overdose

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (CN) - A drug dealer who shoved raw frozen meat down the pants of a man who died from a heroin overdose, rather than summon medical help, was sentenced to life in federal prison.

Prosecutors said Tavis Doyle, 43, refused to allow others to call for help for Jonathan Ward, then 30, as Ward overdosed in Doyle's crack house on May 28, 2009.

Instead, witnesses said, Doyle tried to revive Ward by shoving frozen meat down his pants, and insisting that Ward just needed to sleep it off.

Witnesses took Ward to a hospital 12 hours later, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

(Some junkies believe that applying ice to the testicles can revive a man suffering from an overdose.)

Doyle was convicted in February of three counts of distribution of heroin resulting in death, maintaining premises for distribution of controlled substances, and distribution of crack cocaine to a person under the age of 21. Life in prison without parole was the only sentencing option Doyle faced.

Doyle is no stranger to trouble. He previously was acquitted on a charge related to the heroin overdose death of a 27-year-old Southern Illinois woman; dozens of witnesses during Doyle's two-week trial testified that he sold heroin nonstop in 2008 and 2009, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

"Heroin distributors, such as Mr. Doyle, are no better than cold-blooded murders," U.S. Attorney Stephen Wigginton said in a statement. "Mr. Doyle's actions reflect this fact and his sentence properly punishes his actions. ... I have said in many places, at many events, that drug dealers are on notice: the poison you dispense kills people. You will be held responsible for your actions, even if you do not intend to kill. If convicted, your punishment will be severe, as Mr. Doyle has discovered."

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