Powell man imprisoned for overdose death

Posted 3/24/15

Adam B. Mangold, 29, received a three- to five-year prison sentence Wednesday for a felony charge of delivering a controlled substance (the painkilling patch fentanyl) and a misdemeanor count of criminally negligent homicide.

Mangold’s friend, …

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Powell man imprisoned for overdose death

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A Powell man’s decision to share his prescribed pain medication with a friend led to that friend’s death, and now, a prison term for himself.

Adam B. Mangold, 29, received a three- to five-year prison sentence Wednesday for a felony charge of delivering a controlled substance (the painkilling patch fentanyl) and a misdemeanor count of criminally negligent homicide.

Mangold’s friend, 25-year-old Bryson Herdt of Powell, fatally overdosed on the medication Mangold gave him in December 2013.

The Park County Attorney’s Office had asked for an eight- to 10-year sentence for Mangold noting repeated violations involving controlled substances. Mangold’s court-appointed defense attorney, Nick Beduhn of Cody, had asked for probation; Beduhn argued in part that, because Mangold is paralyzed from the waist down and suffers continuing medical complications from a 2005 motorcycle crash, “he is already in jail.”

In imposing prison time, however, District Court Judge Steven Cranfill noted Mangold had been on probation 11 times before. “None of the periods of probation have been successful. He (Mangold) continues to violate the law with the abuse of controlled substances,” Cranfill said, quoting a probation agent who wrote a pre-sentence report.

“It’s a tragic situation with what I would assume what were two families that were probably close at one time, and two children who were close, and to have watched the death and a decline of a child, both obviously connected to substance abuse,” Judge Cranfill said to the members of Mangold’s and Herdt’s families in the district courtroom. “My heart goes out to both families; tragic results for such young people.”

Herdt’s father read a statement in which he said there were no words to describe the pain, loss and emptiness caused by his son’s death. He spoke of never being able to listen to Herdt again, hug him, hear him say, “I love you,” or meet the grandchildren he might have had.

“Mr. Mangold’s habitual and well-known tendency to share and sell his prescription drugs needs to be stopped before anyone else becomes a victim,” Herdt’s father said. “Your honor, we ask you to consider how Mr. Mangold’s poor choices have affected our family forever and sentence him accordingly.”

He said even imposing the maximum sentence wouldn’t make up for the family’s loss.

“Mr. Mangold has an opportunity to be placed in a facility where he receives help and learns from his mistakes,” the father said. “Unfortunately, Bryson does not. His poor choices resulted in an irrevocable, tragic end.”

Herdt had fallen asleep and then stopped breathing in Mangold’s room after using the medications on that night in early December 2013, charging documents say. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

In arguing for the eight to 10 years, Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Blatt noted an allegation included in charging documents that, just days after Herdt’s death, Mangold “fronted” some of his pain medication to another person with the expectation she would sell the pills and bring the money back to him.

“If that doesn’t disclose the danger that Mr. Mangold is to the public — and a continuing danger after the death of Bryson — I don’t know what else could,” Blatt said.

The allegation was based on statements Mangold reportedly made to Powell Police Sgt. Chad Miner a week after Herdt’s death, but in court last week, Mangold denied that he had fronted pills to the woman.

“I was in shock. I was in complete shock when I was interviewed,” Mangold said. “If I had been in my right frame of mind, if I had been in any frame of mind that I could think clearly, I would never have even talked to ... Officer Miner.”

Mangold said Herdt was like a brother to him (his parents said they considered Herdt to be like one of their own children) and that he was Herdt’s most trusted friend.

As he spent the past 14 months on house arrest, mostly in his bedroom, “I have to find a way to concentrate on something in my room, someway, because there’s a third of my room I can’t look at — I can’t — because that’s where I watched my brother die,” Mangold said.

The probation agent who prepared the pre-sentence report, JC Lawson, described Mangold as having showed no remorse for his crimes, but he disputed that.

“Not once have I said that I don’t feel any remorse. I’m incredibly remorseful,” Mangold said. “To this day, I don’t know how I’m going to replace him.”

“I feel terrible for his family. I do,” Mangold said later, as he cried.

He and defense attorney Beduhn also sought to put his role in Herdt’s death in a broader context.

“I’m not trying to say I’m not remorseful or anything like that, but I feel like the state is saying, or that people are saying, that I put a gun up to his head” and made Herdt use the drugs, Mangold said.

“We saw the path that drugs had thrown him (Herdt) down, and it wouldn’t have mattered, your honor, whether it was at Adam (Mangold)’s house or if it was the next day at someone else’s house; this very same thing could have happened,” Beduhn argued.

They also suggested a part of Herdt’s relationship with Mangold was to get drugs.

Mangold lived with his father, former Powell Mayor Scott Mangold, and both said they hadn’t known the extent of Herdt’s drug abuse.

Blatt, the prosecutor, said that as Herdt’s close friend, and as someone with his own struggles with controlled substances, Adam Mangold knew the troubles and demons Herdt was facing and how hard they are to fight.

“It’s tough to do it on your own, and you do need some help from family and particularly friends,” Blatt said. “In this case, the one person that failed him was a friend.”

Blatt said there was no reason to think Mangold intended to harm Herdt. However, he did intend to give Herdt the controlled medication that led to his fatal overdose, and “we all know that that’s one of the potential consequences when you do something like that,” Blatt said.

In addition to the prison time, Mangold must pay $415 in court fees and assessments and the roughly $5,700 cost of Herdt’s funeral.

Cranfill said he may allow the 14 months Mangold spent on house arrest to count toward his prison sentence. The judge will make a decision after hearing legal arguments on the subject.

Editor's note: This version removes incorrect information about the maximum possible penalty for the delivery charge.

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