Woman given prison for fatal overdose

Published 3:21 pm Saturday, February 22, 2014

STILLWATER (AP) — A Minnesota woman was sentenced to prison Friday for supplying methadone to a 23-year-old man who overdosed and died.

Emily Frye, 22, of Oakdale will serve at least four years and three months on a third-degree murder conviction in the death of Frank Eck of Scandia in August 2012.

A sobbing Frye apologized to Eck’s family in Washington County court.

Email newsletter signup

“I want you to understand how sorry I am that I hurt you guys, so sorry,” Frye told Eck’s family. “I would trade my life for Frank. I have no greater regret than the damage I caused you. Forgive me.”

Judge Ellen Maas sentenced Frye to about seven years in prison with credit for 187 days of jail time. With good behavior, she could leave prison on supervised release after serving two-thirds of her sentence.

Frye’s attorney, Eric Thole, tried to persuade the judge that his client should be sentenced to probation because of inconsistencies in state sentencing guidelines. But prosecutor Imran Ali argued the law clearly calls for prison time in a third-degree murder conviction.

Before sentencing, Eck’s parents and siblings stood before the judge to tell about their grief.

“I replay in my mind what it must have like for Diane to see her first-born son dead in his room,” Frank Eck Jr., the victim’s father, said of his wife.

The Ramsey County medical examiner concluded that Eck died of “acute methadone toxicity,” according to criminal charges. Methadone is a powerful drug used to treat addictions to narcotic drugs, such as heroin.

He was found dead Aug. 1 in his locked bedroom after telling a friend that he “went overboard and did too many pills,” the charges said.